The Story of the 5 Seconds
by Patricia Louise
Summary: Newlywed Annie and Auggie come to Glencoe for the 4th of July. Something happens that could change everything for Annie.
1. The Beginning of It All

**Although this story could be included as mutliple chapters under my 'Happily Ever After' umbrella, I've set it up as a separate story since it's a bit different than my normal stuff.**

**My new friend fbobs suggested the storyline in a PM to me. I liked it. fbobs has provided much technical information to help me craft a realistic (Okay as realistic as fiction can be) story. For this I am thankful. My trusty Beta has done her thing with it, too. But ultimately, any errors are mine and mine alone.**

**Once again I must reiterate that I write these stories for my personal pleasure (and hopefully yours) and I have no connection to the real Covert Affairs in any way shape or form.**

**Here we go-**

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><p>The Story of The 5 seconds<p>

Chapter One – The Beginning of it all

# # # # # #

With her husband, August 'Auggie' Anderson, on her arm as usual, Anne 'Annie' Walker-Anderson trudged down the concourse of Chicago O'Hare toward the shuttle to the rental car lot. Both travelers pulled their wheeled carry-ons behind them and Auggie had his folded up white cane under his right arm, the arm that pulled his suitcase. As she guided her blind husband through the throng of other holiday travelers, Annie marveled at their good fortune to have caught their boss, Joan Campbell, in a good enough mood that she let them off for a mid-week get-a-way without a fuss. 'Well,' Annie thought, 'I've just come back from a very trying assignment. I'm due a little R & R. A little peace and quiet in Glencoe is just the thing I need. And it wasn't easy on Auggie either. He deserves this time off just as much as I do. Maybe more.'

"Nickel for your thoughts," Auggie said as they exited the automatic door to the outside where the various rental car companies' shuttles made their rounds at regular intervals.

"Penny." Annie replied.

"What?"

"The phrase is a penny for your thoughts," Annie replied.

"I allowed for inflation. Your thoughts have got to be worth at least a nickel."

"What makes you think I was thinking anything?"

"Well, for one, you usually keep a running commentary about what's going on around us when we're traveling. You've been pretty quiet since we got off the airplane. Still replaying what happened in Lisbon over in your mind? What happened there was not your fault."

"I know. And no, I haven't been replaying Lisbon over in my mind. You said two things. What's the second reason that makes you think I've been thinking?"

"I know you," Auggie stated simply. "If not Lisbon, then what has you so preoccupied that you can't tell your poor blind husband what's happening in the world he can't see?"

Annie smiled at the hangdog expression on her husband's face. On so many levels he was far from a poor blind man. Man? Yes! My god what a man he was. Blind? Yes. But that was mostly an inconvenience to him, not a defining characteristic. Poor? Never. His life was full and rich. "I was thinking how nice it's going to be to see your family and to be somewhere where the job can't find us."

Almost an hour-and-a-half after they'd stepped off the plane from DC; Annie pulled the Malibu Eco they'd rented from Hertz into the driveway at Auggie's parent's house. Annie was surprised to see the drive and parking pads full of cars; she recognized all but one of them. That one also appeared to be a rental. That meant Alan was probably here, too. "It looks like everyone is getting a head start on the holiday," Annie mentioned to her husband, "The driveway is full of cars. It looks like even Alan might be here."

A pleased grin worked its way across Auggie's mouth. "Good. Someone I can almost talk shop with. Alan's the only one in the family that really knows what I do. What we do," he corrected.

"He's put two and two together?"

"He's never said, but I would be more surprised if he hadn't. He's no slouch in the brains department. College wasn't his thing. He tried, but he just wasn't cut out for that kind of bookish stuff. He's content in his career, that's all that matters." Auggie said philosophically.

"Yeah," Annie agreed as she put the car into park and turned off the ignition. Almost as soon as the engine stopped, Auggie was out of the car and unfurling his cane. Although a bit surprised at her husband's action, Annie did not say a word but exited her side of the vehicle and followed Auggie to the house. Once he'd located the back steps Auggie folded his cane back up as he crossed the back porch to the back door.

With Annie close behind, Auggie went to open the door, but, to his great surprise, it was locked. "What the …?" he mumbled under his breath. Cocking his head slightly Auggie listened for the signs of someone approaching to open the door before rapping loudly on the door.

The curtain on the back door parted a bit before the door locks were undone and the door thrown open to reveal a very pleased Olivia Anderson.

"Auggie! Annie! We didn't think you were coming!" The eldest Anderson wife greeted her brother- and sister-in-law with joyous hugs.

"What's with the locked door? I've never known the backdoor to be locked when somebody's home. And often even when everyone's gone." Auggie queried as he hugged his sister-in-law back.

As Olivia closed and relocked the backdoor she explained, "In the last few months there've been a few robberies in the area; Mom and Dad are just being extra cautious."

"About damn time," Auggie exclaimed. "We've all asked them to be more cautious and I'm glad they're finally listening. Now, where's everyone? Annie says that Alan's here, too?"

"Yes, Alan's here," Olivia confirmed. "The menfolk are partaking of some pre-prandial libations in the family room. Us women folk are in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner." As she followed the newly arrived couple into the kitchen, Olivia continued, "We'll set two more places at the grown-up table. The kids, or those that aren't with the other grandparents anyway, will be eating here in the kitchen."

When Auggie passed through the kitchen on his way to the family room to join his father and older brothers, his mother, after soundly hugging him, pressed a cold beer into his left hand. Once in the family room his brother, Austin, verbally guided him to an empty spot on the couch.

"Well, Alan," Auggie began as soon as he'd settled onto the sofa between two of his brothers, "what did you have to do to get Uncle Sam to let you have enough time off to come home to Glencoe for a visit?"

"Break my ankle," Alan replied from Auggie's left. "I stepped in a hole one morning a while back on one of the Marine's infamous 5-mile runs before mess call. I'm finally off the crutches and in a walking boot. Still not fit for duty though."

"For real?" Auggie queried incredulously.

"For real, Auggie. Give me your left hand and I'll prove it," Alan replied.

Auggie placed his cane onto his lap, and took a swig of his beer before switching the bottle to his right hand. Alan then guided his brother's hand to the top of the walking boot on his right leg.

"You're not kidding are you?" Auggie stated as he investigated the encumbrance on his brother's leg.

"'fraid not," Alan stated.

"How long has this been going on?" Auggie asked pointedly. "I'm assuming for a while for you to be in a walking boot now."

"Yeah. A while. In my eighth week of healing. Got a couple more to go and then they say some Physical Therapy. When I get back to base, I'm supposed to go on desk duty. I'm actually looking forward to that."

"So, why am I just now finding out about this? We've talked several times in the last two months," Auggie accused.

"We had other things to talk about and this never seemed that important," Alan remarked calmly. "It's not like this is the first break I've ever had."

"No, it's not. And probably won't be your last," Auggie agreed. After catching up with his other brothers and father and finishing his beer, Auggie rose and headed into the kitchen area of the sprawling downstairs of his parent's home. "Where's my wife?" he asked as he rounded the corner from family room into the kitchen.

"She and Jenna took your bags up to the guest room a bit ago. She said she wanted to freshen up a bit," Abigail Anderson advised.

"I need to do that, too," Auggie said as he adjusted his course to enter the hallway that went past the dining room into the front part of the house where the stairway off the foyer was.

# # # # #

After receiving a welcoming hug from her eldest sister-in-law, Annie followed her husband of a few months through his parent's home. Even though she'd been here a few times before, she wasn't fully comfortable in the well-appointed home with people who were obviously well-off. In the kitchen she watched as her husband accepted the cold beer his mother pressed into his hand as he passed by to the back of the house were his father and brothers were gathered. Her offer to assist was met with the suggestion that she could set two more places at the table. As Annie gathered the dishes and tableware from their respective cupboards she was joined in the task by the youngest of her new sisters-in-law, Jenna.

"It's so good that you could make the trip out at the last minute," Jenna said enthusiastically. "We really haven't had a chance to talk since your wedding. We're all rather interested in hearing how the honeymoon went. Abby hasn't divulged where she and Auggie made arrangements for that."

"According to Auggie, it was all his mother's doing, but we went to St. Barts. A nice relaxing time between the craziness that planning a wedding entailed and the work chaos that awaited me on my return. It's a nice place, but both Auggie and I felt a bit out of place."

"Saint Barts! You go girl! I've been trying to get Austin to take me there for a few years now. You and Augs didn't bring any bags in with you. You have a hotel?"

"No. No hotel. We were sort of planning on staying here, but Auggie was so eager to get in the house that the bags are still in the car."

"Well, we'll just fix that right now," Jenna said tugging on Annie's hand. "We're modern women. We don't need no stinkin' man to help us schlep a couple of bags into the house and up the stairs."

"Right," Annie agreed. "We don't need no stinkin' men."

A few minutes later the two women were lugging the carry-ons, and Annie's tote bag, up the stairs. The two women chatted about Jenna's two girls – who were at her parents for the holiday – as Annie situated the suitcases and freshened up a bit. Of her three sisters-in-law, as much as she liked them all, Annie seemed to gravitate to Jenna the most. Why this was, Annie didn't quite understand because they certainly had very little in common. Once Annie had hers and Auggie's bags situated she freshened up a bit by running a brush through her long blonde hair, splashed a bit of cool water on her face and neck and, because she was on vacation, kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes on the plush carpet. 'It definitely feels good to be here,' she thought loving her new family as she followed Jenna back down the stairs. Just as the pair of women were halfway down the stairs the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it, Mom," Auggie said to the pair's right and in response to his mother's request for someone to get the door. He was in the hallway from the back of the house.

Jenna hurried down the last few steps. "I'll get it Auggie. We're not expecting anyone."

Descending the stairs Annie heard "we're not expecting anyone." put it together with the rash of robberies – more like home invasions Jenna had said – and had a sudden bad feeling; her instincts and training kicked in before Jenna even opened the door. She started to say "Jenna, don't ..." when the first lock clicked.

Auggie stopped partway down the hallway and allowed Jenna to get the door. Jenna barely had the locks undone when the unexpected visitors – three young men brandishing semi-automatic weapons – burst through the door.

The first one was through the door – trying to make room for the others – screamed threats as he grabbed Jenna, wrapped his left arm around her neck and jammed his Glock 19 to her temple. Then his gaze darted to Annie on the stairs and then to Auggie, white cane in hand, in the hallway. Their movement caught his attention causing a momentary attempt to check his motion. The hesitation caused his companions, pressing in behind him, to stumble into him as they tried to get in the door. Then, still off balance, the first one in waved the gun toward the room to his left as he yelled for them to get back.

If she needed a window to act, the gun waving to the other room would have been enough, but, adrenaline fueled and instinctively prepared, Annie was already in motion pushing off powerfully down the stairs. Recognizing instinctively that she was the only one standing between the thugs and god-only-knows-what havoc, Annie attacked with the focus and unwavering ferocity of a Doberman. Compliance with the thug's demand to move into the living room was not an option, her family was under attack. With no thought of self, just the destruction of the threat, Annie drove herself directly at the man holding Jenna like a cornered wildcat; the adrenaline kicked in, time slowed, vision narrowed, her whole universe was the first thug holding Jenna - there was no thinking, it was all reflex, training, and all the pure animal ferocity she could deliver. Survival wasn't on her mind as she jammed her left hand onto the slide of the Glock – gouging her palm. She knocked it out of battery and locked her grip around it so the slide couldn't move forward. She momentarily felt the gun react as the guy's finger turned white on the trigger, knew then that the first move had worked and it wouldn't fire if she didn't ease her grip. With lightening reflexes, honed by hundreds of hours in the gym and advanced weapons training, she levered the gun down and out of his hand before the slide could slip back in her grip.

Her right palm slammed into his chest – cracking his sternum – her elbow flexed to jam itself between him and Jenna as she crashed into him at full speed. Her momentum drove him, and the two behind him, back so they couldn't get a shot at her. Jenna shaken, partially stunned, was thrust, scrambling for balance, away from the intruder giving Annie the chance to smash the first man's larynx with his own gun, and then ram her right elbow into his throat again delivering a second potentially fatal blow and placed her hand in position so that she could transfers the semi-automatic pistol to her right hand. And then, reaching around the collapsing thug, she fired four quick shots that put the other two on the floor just inside the door. As soon as they were down, a barely balanced Annie simultaneously looked out the door and heel kicked the weapons of the two downed men out of anyone's reach. Her bare foot started to bleed from kicking the guns but she barely noticed the pain. After she looked out the door and ascertained that there were no more threats outside, Annie stepped back, pistol still trained on the fallen thugs. She didn't care if they were alive. Her vision began to clear. She saw Jenna, scrambling to her feel from where she'd fallen, looking confused and a bit panicked and then fleeing to the back of the house past Auggie. The look Jenna had when she looked at Annie seemed to ask 'Who are you and what have you done with my sweet, demure sister-in-law?' And, to her huge relief, she saw that Auggie was okay. Five violent seconds after the first lock clicked it was over.

Even before Annie had time to take a deep breath, Auggie was on his phone to Langley.

"This is Peppermint, password Matrix. We have a situation at my location in Glencoe, Illinois. Helvetica has just taken out at least two intent on a home invasion at my parent's residence. We need assistance," Auggie calmly relayed to the person answering on the other end of the call. "Annie?"

# # # # #

As soon as his brother got up to go upstairs, Alan also got up and hobbled out of the family room to get another beer from the fridge. He paused in his travel when the front doorbell rang. That was a rare occurrence; everyone came to the back door unless they were selling something. But who would be selling what at this hour the night before a holiday? He heard his blind youngest brother offer to answer the door and began to make his way to the front of the house. Having a blind man answer the door with the spate of home invasions was not a good idea. Even if that blind man was former Special Forces and even now a covert officer of the CIA. And then when his sister-in-law actually answered the door, he relaxed a bit and paused near the opening from kitchen to hallway. What he saw at the end of the hallway seemed surreal. If he needed conformation that his new sister-in-law was CIA like his youngest brother, her rushing of the assailant holding his other sister-in-law and expertly dispatching him, and then the other two behind him, was it.

He turned to his left and checked the back door and porch for more thugs. And then to the patio doors to check them and then finally to corralled the rest of the family in the family room. A family that seemed confused and anxious. A family that had no clue what had just happened and Alan wanted to keep them in the dark for as long as possible. They really didn't need to know what their newest sister- or daughter-in-law was capable of. Or what their son and youngest brother really did for a living. Long ago he'd been entrusted with the truth about his brother. He'd been sworn to secrecy then and had kept his brother's trust for all these years. He knew his brother's wishes then and Alan felt that they still held true now; possibly even more so now.

The family matriarch, Abigail Anderson, had been on the phone to the 911 dispatcher almost before the last shot had been fired. When he had been checking the backdoor, Jenna had rushed through and was now in her husband's arms on the sofa in the family room sobbing uncontrollably.

With his wife sobbing in his arms, Austin looked up questioningly at Alan as he went from the patio door back in to the kitchen. Alan paused for a moment. "Someone tried to muscle their way into the house. They've been taken care of. Now all of you just need to stay back here and keep quiet. Police will be here shortly to take everyone's statements. Now I'm going back up front and check on Annie and Auggie."

"Auggie. My baby. How's …?" Abigail Anderson cried.

"Both Annie and Auggie are just shaken up, but since they were close to the action they need to stay where they are for now. They're gonna need to talk to Jenna, too. I don't know about the rest of you. I'll be back when I can and tell you exactly what happened," Alan carefully explained. "But for now, stay in here and out of the way," he commanded before leaving to go back to the foyer.

"It's Alan," Alan announced loudly as he came down the hallway relieved to see Annie was no longer in battle mode; she was sitting on the second step from the bottom with the appropriated weapon still in her hands but pointed at the step between her feet. Auggie was now sitting on the steps beside Annie, one arm around her shoulders. He seemed to be staring at the carnage on the floor in front of him, but Alan knew better. Annie seemed to be staring out the still opened front door. On his way to the living room to sit and wait for the police, Alan almost reached down to pick up Auggie's white cane from the spot where his brother had dropped it, but then just stepped over it, leaving the crime scene intact.

"Jenna's with Austin. The rest of the family, kids included, are in the family room. I told them to stay back there for now. They don't need to see this," Alan said as he moved an ottoman toward the entry and sat down. His combat experience was helping him stay calm, besides it was over before he could get involved in the actual fight. He knew this was the last thing his brother and his sister-in-law needed to deal with. Annie seemed to be holding it together pretty well, Auggie was right there for her – she was going to have after effects from this. Definitely best to focus on the immediate serious issue and deal with everything else later.

"What's your covers?" Alan asked softly enough that the rest of the family was unlikely to hear.

"Same as usual, I'm IT at the Pentagon. Annie's Smithsonian. We're family here for the holiday," Auggie advised.

"I'm a martial arts and self-defense buff," Annie said quietly beside him, with just the faintest hint of trembling now in her voice. "That's how I knew what to do. I couldn't let them get past me. My defenseless husband was in their way." She patted Auggie's thigh tenderly. "We've got to play it that way. I hate to, but…"

"It's okay, Annie. You know I can play the hapless blind guy well enough to sell it,"

"Mmm, Annie," Alan started, "you might want to put the pistol down before the cops get here. They might see you holding it and shoot first. There's been enough blood shed this evening."

"I'm sorry …" Annie began but that's all that she could say before Alan interrupted her. As far as he was concerned his newest sister in law had nothing to be sorry about – and they were damn lucky she was where she was when those guys came through the door – this wasn't good but it was way better than how it could have played out.

"Absolutely no need to be sorry, Annie. You did what you had to do. I just meant that I didn't want your blood on the floor also. Well, I see that you have left a bit, but … You know what I mean," Alan said.

A police car screeched to a halt in front of the house, cutting the siren even before it was stopped but leaving the lights on to alert the whole neighborhood. The second police car seemed to do the same. And a few moments later the EMTs arrived. As soon as the police vehicles pulled up, Annie laid the gun on the bottom step before the officers opened the doors. "What happened here?" an officer asked as he approached the open door on full tactical alert, with two others just as alert behind him. His gun wasn't drawn, but his hand was on it. When he had a view inside and finished assessing the calm people looking at him and three bodies on the floor, it only took a couple of seconds before he realized the incident was over, he saw a gun on the step in front of a blond woman but realized from her pose there was no danger.

Annie and Alan had stayed still – waiting for the officers to come to the realization that they were not the threat – and when the first officer and then the other officers straightened up out of an instinctive crouch, Alan could feel some tension leave his bodies.

The first officer said, "Please stay right where you are while I check these guys," and waved the EMT's forward.

Then he continued, "OK, once again, what happened?"

# # # # #

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><p><strong>Well? What did you think?<strong>

**Next time the story will continue from first Jenna's point of view. Then well get back to Annie, Auggie, Alan and other family members. How do you think that the others will view Annie now?**


	2. Jenna and Auggie

**Here is the second installment of this story as seen from first Jenna's point of view; and then from Auggie's. Next time we'll hear from Annie again, and then Alan. Much of the converstation and some actions are going to be repeated, but the thoughts of the different characters is not. Very definitely is not.**

**There have been many hands on this chapter. They know who they are and just how much I appreciate their comments and suggestions. The third chapter is pretty much finished, but I'm not going to post it until the last person to see it before you all do, has given their go ahead. This next week to ten days is going to be very busy for me. I have to pack up one location, move it all to another, and unpack it all. In between all of that, I will try to find time to post the next installment.**

**I am a bit disheartened to see so few comments. Even the number of 'Story Alerts' on the first chapter were not what I'd hoped for, but since I'm probably writing for a very small audience, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.**

**Once again with the yada, yada, yada and blah, blah, blah of I don't own and don't have any connection to the series that Chris Ord and Matt Corman have so skillfully crafted. I only like to dream up scenarios that Matt and Chris haven't thought of - or can't put on the air quite yet.**

**Here we go:**

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><p># # # # #<p>

JENNA ANDERSON

When the front doorbell rang while she was coming down the stairs after helping her new sister-in-law bring suitcases in from the car, Jenna Anderson wondered who it could be at the door. She knew it wasn't family; thought it might be a neighbor; that it could be anything else didn't register with her. To her right her husband's youngest brother, Auggie – who was totally blind from a service related injury – responded to a request from his mother for someone to answer it. Instinctively Jenna didn't think that a blind man answering the door was a good idea. Not that she thought her brother-in-law incapable; he was very capable in most instances; so much so that it was sometimes easy to forget that he could not see. But today, now, her gut instinct was to answer the door herself. Her sister-in-law, Auggie's new wife Annie, was behind her on the stairs.

Jenna bounded the rest of the way down the stairs and to the front door. "I'll get it Auggie. We're not expecting anyone," she said as she crossed the foyer. As she undid the first lock she heard Annie say something from her place on the stairs, but what she'd said didn't register. Jenna barely had the locks undone when the unexpected visitors – three young men brandishing semi-automatic weapons – burst through the door.

Before she knew what was happening, the first one was through the door grabbed her, wrapping his left arm around her neck and jamming the barrel of his gun into her temple. He was screaming obscenity laced orders near her ear. Terrified out of her mind, Jenna fought her emotions to try to stay calm; compliant. Alive. She had to stay alive for her children; her husband. They could have her rings and the money from her purse, just as long as they didn't hurt her – or the rest of her extended family.

What happened next was but a blur – Annie rushed down from her position on the stairway; disarmed the young man holding her and shoved her away seemingly all in one motion. She heard shots, but they came so rapidly she couldn't tell how many. Quickly scrambling to her feet from where she'd stumbled when Annie had freed her from the thug's clutches, Jenna fled to the back of the house, her eyes flicking behind her instinctively checking for pursuit and seeing blood seeping from the chest of one of the young men on the floor.

As she brushed past her brother-in-law, Jenna barely registered that Auggie was apparently fully aware of what was happening. He'd dropped his cane and had taken up a fighter's stance.

Heart pounding wildly in her chest, Jenna – a mentally confused Jenna – launched herself into her husband's arms as soon as she was close enough to do so.

"Jenna! What happened? You OK?" Austin asked as he grabbed his wife to him protectively. "What happened, Babe?" Austin asked again as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

Jenna drew back from where she'd buried her head into her husband's chest. Gesturing wildly Jenna blubbered, "Man … Gun … Annie … shot …."

"Annie's been shot?" Austin asked with alarm.

Jenna both shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I ... I ...his gun … I … Oh God! It was so loud, I don't know … there was blood …," she blubbered.

"Easy now," Austin said comfortingly as he pulled his wife back into his embrace.

Sobbing hysterically Jenna gave in to her nerves. She was blissfully unaware of what was happening around her until her tears were spent and the cops came to interview her.

# # # # #

AUGGIE ANDERSON

Auggie had just started down the hallway to the front of the house when the front doorbell chimed. "I'll get it, Mom," Auggie responded in response to his mother's plea from the kitchen for someone to get the door.

To his left Annie was coming down the stairs; even in her bare feet he could tell her footsteps. Someone was with her, but he couldn't tell who until Jenna spoke, "I'll get it Auggie. We're not expecting anyone."

Auggie stopped partway down the hallway and allowed Jenna to get the door.

A fraction of a second later the first of the front door locks was being undone and from the stairs Annie was urgently saying, "Jenna, don't ..."

The next few seconds were nothing but the frantic sounds of the front door being flung open, a slight scuffle. And then the sound of Annie rushing toward the door from the stairway and putting the moves on one intruder reached Auggie's ears; and then the sound of a semi-automatic quickly dispensing at least 4 rounds into flesh. Two long guns being kicked across the foyer's floor ended the frenzy of activity at the front door.

He didn't have to see to know that what had just happened was not good. Immediately he dropped his cane and took a stance in the hallway to prevent anyone from getting past him as Jenna brushed past him. When he determined that no one was coming toward him, he pulled his cellphone from his pocket and speed dialed Langley. "This is Peppermint, password Matrix. We have a situation at my location in Glencoe, Illinois. Helvetica has just taken out at least two intent on a home invasion at my parent's residence. We need assistance," Auggie calmly relayed to the person on the other end of the call. That done his thought turned to Jenna. He wasn't sure, but knowing her as well as he did, he figured that she would be hysterical given what had apparently just happened. Most of the residents of Chicago's North Shore lead sheltered lives far from gritty reality that was the big city. He knew his eyes had been opened to the realities of the real world in boot camp.

Then his thoughts turned to his wife. When she came down from the adrenaline high he knew she was currently on, he knew that she'd need his calm experience to help her hold it together – she was no stranger to violence, to having killed, but this was a different situation; it hadn't been in her official capacity with the CIA. "Annie?" he queried strongly.

"I'm okay, Auggie, I don't see any more of them." Annie said from a few feet in front of him.

"What just happened?" Auggie asked taking a few cautious steps toward where his wife stood.

"Right now, I think the less I confirm for you, the better," Annie said quietly moving back toward the staircase. "I'm sure you have a pretty good idea what happened, but the more in the dark, so to speak, you are about what I just did the better for you. Just know that all I wanted to do was protect you and the rest of your family. What came bursting through that door was pretty damn scary. I'm sitting on the stairs now, Honey."

Auggie entered the foyer. "Screaming obscenities and gunshots, yeah, it sounded pretty damn scary. You probably heard, but just in case your ears were still ringing, I called it in," he said, relieved that it was all over and that his wife seemed okay.

"I heard. Thanks. Cut it close around the newel post. There's bodies and blood on the floor in here. Hate to have you step in the blood or trip over a body," Annie cautioned.

With his left hand Auggie reached out and located the spindles below the banister and followed them to the newel post and kept his left foot in contact with the stair base as he made the turn. He sat on the second step beside his wife. "Bodies? As in more than one?"

"Yeah, more than one," Annie admitted self-consciously. Auggie wrapped his left arm around Annie's shoulders. She was slightly trembling. He tried to pull her closer but she resisted.

"It's Alan," Alan announced a bit louder than normal as he came down the hallway. "Jenna's with Austin. The rest of the family, kids included, are in the family room. I told them to stay back there for now. They don't need to see this," Alan said as he headed in to the living room. He moved a piece of furniture toward the entry and sat down. "What's your covers?" Alan asked softly enough that the rest of the family was unlikely to hear.

"Same as usual, I'm IT at the Pentagon. Annie's Smithsonian. We're family here for the holiday," Auggie advised. He knew that Annie had done what she'd done to protect him and his family, but she'd also opened a whole lot of potential career derailing worms.

"I'm a martial arts and self-defense buff," Annie said quietly beside him, with just the faintest hint of trembling now in her voice. "That's how I knew what to do. I couldn't let them get past me. My defenseless husband was in their way." She patted her husband's thigh tenderly. "We've got to play it that way. I hate to, but…"

"It's okay, Annie. You know I can play the hapless blind guy well enough to sell it," Auggie said quietly. Mentally he switched off his CIA/Special Forces self-assuredness and took on the role of just the regular blind guy that might just get them out of hot water with the locals. Silently he prayed that Joan would send in the cavalry in the form of Homeland Security or FBI.

"Mmm, Annie," Alan started, "you might want to put the pistol down before the cops get here. They might see you holding it and shoot first. There's been enough blood shed this evening."

"I'm sorry …" Annie began but that's all that she said. As far as he was concerned his wife had nothing to be sorry about.

"No need to be sorry, Annie. You did what you had to do. I just meant that I didn't want your blood on the floor also. Well, I see that you have left a bit, but … You know what I mean," Alan said.

Auggie fought the urge to ask for an explanation as to why Alan had said that Annie had left some blood on the floor, too. But since his brother seemed unconcerned about the nature of Annie's injuries, and she'd not asked for treatment, he'd let it go, too. An ambulance was nearly there; if his wife needed attention she'd get it shortly. Two police cars were arriving from different directions; soon the real fun would begin Auggie thought sarcastically.

A police car screeched to a halt in front of the house, cutting the siren even before it was stopped. The second police car seemed to do the same. And a third vehicle, larger than the police cruisers arrived. As soon as the doors on the police vehicles slammed shut, Annie laid the gun on the bottom step.

"What happened here?" an officer asked as he approached the open door. Once he was at the doorway the officer said, "Please stay right where you are while I check these guys."

The sounds of the EMTs coming in and checking the bodies on the floor reached Auggie's ears. Then the officer asked again, "OK, once again, what happened?"

"Well, it seems these guys tried to pull off a home invasion, took one of my sisters-in-law hostage briefly before my wife decided to go all Jason Bourne on them," Auggie offered proudly.

"And who are you?" the other officer asked.

"August Anderson, son of the house's owners, Alfred and Abigail Anderson. My wife, Anne, and I are here for the holiday from DC."

'I'm Gunnery Sargent Alan Anderson, USMC, also a son of the home's owner. Here from Camp LeJeune," Alan added from where he sat.

The officer finally processed what Auggie had said. "You did all this? Stopped them right here?" the officer asked somewhat incredulously.

"Yeah," Annie admitted quietly. "Jenna and I were coming down the stairs when the doorbell rang. My husband was in the hallway and offered to answer it, but Jenna intervened and actually answered the door. We'd just been told that there'd been some armed home invasion type robberies in the area. When Jenna commented that they weren't expecting anyone I tried to caution her not to answer the door, but she'd already had the locks undone. As soon as the locks were undone those three pushed the door open. This was the first one through the door and the other two were close behind. He grabbed Jenna, put this gun to her head and began shouting orders. I'm a martial arts buff and have black belts in several disciplines. Seeing me on the stairs and my husband in the hallway caused him to hesitate a moment, I saw my opportunity and rushed him. I grabbed his pistol in such a manner that it would not fire and took it away from him and put him on the floor. Jenna took off running to the back of the house. The other two were starting to raise their weapons, those black rifles, I had the gun I'd taken from the first guy, so I used it before they could get those rifles up, and they went down." Annie took a shaky breath and then continued "I kicked their weapons out of the way after they were down." Then, after a moment's pause she added "I was in fear of death or grievous injury for myself and my family. Especially for my husband who was directly in their path to the back of the house."

When she finished, the one that asked the question asked, "You shot them with their own gun? You took on three armed men by yourself? With your bare hands? Holy crap – you are very lucky … or they picked the wrong house."

One of them moved forward and said, "I need to recover this gun." He picked it up with a pencil in the barrel. Then he paused a second and before he turned to put the gun in a plastic evidence bag he said, "Lady, I can't hi-5 you right now, but I'd like to."

The EMTs finished checking the fallen men. "This one needs medical attention, but the other two are past benefitting from it. We need the ME" one of the EMTs relayed to the police.

"Chip, call the ME, get me some detectives, and some preliminary photos of the scene," the first officer, obviously in charge, commanded.

"Got 'em, Dave," a second officer replied.

The EMTs quietly continued to work on the fallen thug – establishing, with difficulty, an airway, beginning oxygen and an IV. Once that was done they loaded him on the gurney and departed.

When the suspect, EMTs and one police officer were gone from the house, Officer Dave, once again began taking statements. "You were in the hall, Mr. Anderson? What did you see?"

"Which Mr. Anderson are you asking?" Auggie asked.

"You," Officer Dave replied, his voice showing the slightest hint of irritation. "You were in the hall were you not?"

"Yes, I was in the hall. I was on my way upstairs to freshen up a bit before the family sat down to dinner. I didn't see anything, but I heard the commotion."

There were a few moments silence and then Annie spoke. "My husband is blind," she stated quickly. Simply.

"Oh," the officer replied sounding a bit embarrassed that in the 10 to 15 minutes on scene he hadn't realized that. "Go on with what you heard, Mr. Anderson."

Auggie sighed slightly. Without even seeing the look on the officer's face he instinctively knew that anything he said from here on out would probably be discounted. The blind guy couldn't possibly know what had happened right in front of him because he couldn't see. Sometimes it irritated him no end that the rest of the world didn't always treat him as the competent person that those who worked closely with him at Langley did. He also knew he should relay only what he felt and heard avoiding any conclusions.

"Go on, Mr. Anderson," Dave encouraged quietly. "Tell me what happened from your perspective."

"Like I said, I was coming down the hall when the bell rang. I was going to get the door, but my sister-in-law, Jenna Anderson, was coming down the stairs and said she'd get it. I stopped where I was to give her room in the foyer. My wife was on the stairs, too. She cautioned Jenna not to open the door, but it was too late; Jenna already had the deadbolt undone, and was turning the knob. The door flew open and there was a bit of a scuffle there. One of the guys that came through the door was shouting directives. Then I heard my wife rush in from the stairs; more scuffling; Jenna went past me in that direction," Auggie said pointing back into the house, "about the same time as several shots rang out hitting flesh from close range. I hit the deck, lost my cane when I did. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was the intruders who were shot because it got really quiet. Then I made my way to my wife to make sure she was physically all right. My brother, Alan, came in and then went back to the other part of the house for a few minutes and then came back. My wife and I have been sitting here on the stairs ever since."

"How many intruders were you aware of?"

"I wasn't exactly sure. Two for sure, but whether there was one or two more I couldn't exactly tell. Only the one was speaking. More like yelling," Auggie explained.

"Okay, got that. And you – Allen is it? – what did you see and do?"

"Alan, A_L_A_N." From the way that his brother distinctly spelled out his name, Auggie knew that Alan was somewhat pissed. For as long as he could remember Alan had been touchy about having his name spelled and pronounced correctly. Even in light of all the chaos that he'd just been party to, some things never really changed. His brother's military training was apparent in the way he clearly and concisely relayed what he'd seen and done. He almost smiled at the way Alan didn't tell all that he'd seen. If Alan had said that said that he'd seen him take a combative stance in the hallway, the officer might look harder at him and Annie. They didn't need that extra scrutiny; there'd be enough of that already.

It was only when the officer keyed his mike and spoke to his dispatcher that Auggie clearly understood what Annie had done – two dead and one badly wounded. He felt Annie flinch just a bit again when she heard two dead. When he heard that the officer thought that it was a justified self-defense, Auggie began to relax a bit, and when he heard that the FBI was on their way he finally began to fully let go of the tension that had been his companion since Jenna opened the door. When he heard that transmission from dispatch Auggie began to have hope that Joan had taken the action that was behind the FBI involvement. If so, there was going to be a process to go through but it might come out okay. Maybe. 'At least we're all still alive,' he thought. He had the feeling that was the best thing so far.

Beneath his arm Auggie felt Annie begin to tremble a bit harder. This time she allowed him to pull her in closer and laid her head on his chest. "Hang on, Annie. We'll get through this," he whispered into his wife's ear. She nodded her head on his chest. "Alan, would you go out back and bring Annie and me a couple of bottles of water? Annie's starting to go in to shock. Please check on Jenna. I'm sure she's in shock now, too," Auggie directed.

Alan hesitated a moment and then headed to the back of the house. The police officer left the house. He was still seemed to be out of earshot when Alan returned. Before returning to his seat just inside the living room, he handed a bottle of water to Annie and brushed one against the back of Auggie's free hand.

Annie took several long draws on the bottle and then said, "Thanks, Alan."

Auggie set his water bottle on the step between his feet and with his unencumbered hand began to investigate its top.

"It's open, Bro," Alan relayed kindly.

"Where did Officer Dave go?" Auggie inquired.

"According to his name badge, it's Sargent Jamison," Annie advised. "He's out erecting that yellow and black crime scene tape across the front of the yard from corner of the house to the post at the drive, around the trees at the curb, to the neighbor's fence on the other side and now back to the shrubs on the side of the house. There's a small handful of people gathering on the sidewalk on the other side of street. I wish they'd close the door or let us move – I'm afraid someone is going to take a picture, there are cell phones all over the place."

"I shouldn't be surprised," Auggie said with a snort, "but I'd hoped that perhaps the residents of the Village of Glencoe would be above voyeurism."

"Apparently not," Alan replied snidely. "At least the media hasn't shown up yet."

"That would be a disaster," Auggie stated unequivocally. Of all of the things that could happen, being seen on air would by far be the worst; and names in the paper would not be good either. And a double homicide anywhere on Chicago's North Shore was bound to garner media interest. He took a long drink from the water bottle, but really wished it was a beer. Or even something stronger.

"Annie, we need to move you out of the line of sight – Alan, can you get something I can wrap around her? She's getting a chill sitting here."

* * *

><p><strong>Annie and Alan are up next. What do you think they're going to have to say about this situation Annie's gotten herself in to?<strong>


	3. Annie and Alan

**Here's the view of those 5 seconds and a bit of the aftermath from Annie's and Alan's point of view. Again, some of the conversation and actions are repeated, but these characters 'take' on it may be vastly different.**

**Once again, there have been a few people besides myself who have had input into this chapter - Mandy58 and fbobs only two of them. Sometimes it seems they know my characters better than I do. evil grin We've been working in a new format. I apologize for any extraneous words, letters, or punctuation errors.**

**And again, I write for personal pleasure, creativity and stress relief. I post here because I like to share with others that have come to like my stories and characters. I have little connection with the real 'Covert Affairs' or its creators, Matt Corman and Chris Ord.**

**# # # # #**

**ANNIE ANDERSON**

Annie was trying to force herself into a state of calm as she'd had to do many times in the field on missions. She smiled inwardly when she heard Auggie proudly say "Well, it seems these guys tried to pull off a home invasion, took one of my sisters-in-law hostage briefly before my wife decided to go all Jason Bourne on them."

'Truth be told,' she thought, 'Auggie ought to be proud of himself for having taught me a huge percentage of what I know about street fighting. He told me, "there are no style points, there is only winning and losing; get close; get them before they get you." She owed him her life in so many ways. A slight amount of the tension she'd been having left Annie at the pride so distinct in her husband's voice. Ever since he'd sat down beside her, she'd wondered how he felt about what she'd just done. He was so hard to read sometimes.

She'd heard him and Alan interact with the officer effectively putting him at ease with the pair of them.

"And who are you?" the other officer asked Auggie.

"August Anderson, son of the house's owners, Alfred and Abigail Anderson. My wife, Anne, and I are here for the holiday from DC."

"I'm Gunnery Sergeant Alan Anderson, USMC, also a son of the home's owners. Here from Camp LeJeune," Alan added from where he sat.

When suddenly what Auggie had said seemed to penetrate the lead officer's consciousness it was Annie's turn. "You did all this? Stopped them right here?" he asked looking at Annie somewhat incredulously.

"Yeah," Annie admitted quietly as the officer moved aside to make room for the EMTs while staying focused on Annie. "Jenna and I were coming down the stairs when the doorbell rang. My husband," she nodded her head toward Auggie, "was in the hallway and offered to answer it, but Jenna intervened and actually answered the door. We'd just been told that there'd been some armed home invasion type robberies in the area. When Jenna commented that they weren't expecting anyone I tried to caution her not to answer the door, but she'd already had the locks undone. As soon as the locks were undone those three pushed the door open. This," she pointed to the thug the EMT's were working on, "was the first one through the door and the other two were close behind. He grabbed Jenna, put this gun to her head and began shouting orders.

"I'm a martial arts and self-defense buff and have black belts in several disciplines. I think seeing me on the stairs and my husband in the hallway caused him to hesitate a moment. Anyway, I saw my opportunity and rushed him. I grabbed his pistol in such a manner that it would not fire and took it away from him and put him on the floor. Jenna took off running to the back of the house. The other two were starting to raise their weapons – those black rifles – I had the gun I'd taken from the first guy, so I used it before they could get those rifles up, and they went down." Annie took a shaky breath and then continued, "I kicked their weapons out of the way after they were down." Then, after a moment's pause she added "I was in fear of death or grievous injury for myself and my family." Annie added this knowing the legal implications of that statement in situations like this. "Especially for my husband who was directly in their path to the back of the house."

The officers listened wide-eyed to Annie's story alternately looking from Annie to the bodies and back. When she finished the one that asked the question asked, "You shot them with their own gun? You took on three armed men by yourself? With your bare hands? Holy crap – you are very lucky …" She just continued to look at him with her completely steady brown eyes and he suddenly seemed to understand what he was facing when he shivered a little and quickly finished, "Or they picked the wrong house."

The other officer just stared at her. Annie looked right back at him. Both officers, though they couldn't tell you why, felt like they were surrounded even though she was sitting down on the stairs. One of them moved forward and said, "I need to recover this gun." He picked it up with a pencil in the barrel never taking his eyes off her for more than a fraction of a second. When he had the weapon out of her reach, he relaxed a bit. Then he paused a second and, before he turned to put the gun in a plastic evidence bag, said, "Lady, I can't high-five you right now, but I'd like to." The other officer nodded in agreement. When he said that Annie knew she at least had the on-scene officers in her corner so far. There were going to be detectives, and probably no-nonsense FBI, but at least the first responders got it.

While Annie had been telling her side of the story, the ambulance crew had come in and checked the fallen men. "This one needs medical attention, but the other two are past benefitting from it, we'll need the ME" one of the EMTs relayed to the police.

"Chip, call the ME, get me some detectives, and some preliminary photos of the scene," the first officer, obviously in charge, commanded.

"Got 'em, Dave," the officer referred to as Chip replied.

The EMTs, working with practiced efficiency, got an airway into the first man's crushed throat, hooked up a portable oxygen tank, started an IV, and seeing that their patient was stabilized with blood pressure and respiration at reasonable levels, wrapped the fallen thug in a light sheet in preparation for transport and headed out. Officer Chip accompanied them.

Once the suspect, EMTs and one police officer were gone from the house, Officer Dave, once again began taking statements. He looked once more at Annie, and then turned to Auggie "You were in the hall, Mr. Anderson? What did you see?"

"Which Mr. Anderson are you talking to?" Auggie asked.

"You," Officer Dave replied, his voice showing the slightest hint of irritation. "You were in the hall were you not?"

"Yes, I was in the hall. I was on my way upstairs to freshen up a bit before the family sat down to dinner. I didn't see anything, but I heard the commotion."

There were a few moments silence and then Annie spoke. "My husband is blind," she stated quickly. Simply.

"Oh," the officer replied sounding a bit embarrassed that in 10 to 15 minutes on scene he hadn't realized that. "Go on with what you heard, Mr. Anderson."

Auggie sighed slightly and hesitated.

"Go on, Mr. Anderson," Officer Dave encouraged quietly. "Tell me what happened from your perspective."

"Like I said, I was coming down the hall when the bell rang. I was going to get the door, but my sister-in-law, Jenna Anderson, was coming down the stairs and said she'd get it. I stopped where I was to give her room in the foyer. My wife was on the stairs, too. She cautioned Jenna not to open the door, but it was too late; Jenna already had the deadbolt undone, and was turning the knob. The door flew open and there was a bit of a scuffle there. One of the guys that came through the door was shouting directives. Then I heard my wife rush in from the stairs; more scuffling; Jenna went past me in that direction," Auggie said pointing toward the back of the house, "about the same time as several shots rang out hitting flesh from close range. I hit the deck, lost my cane when I did. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was the intruders who were shot because it got really quiet. Then I made my way to my wife to make sure she was physically all right. My brother, Alan, came in and then went back to the other part of the house and then came back a few minutes later. My wife and I have been sitting here on the stairs ever since."

"How many intruders were you aware of?"

"I wasn't exactly sure. Two for sure, but whether there was one or two more I couldn't exactly tell. Only the one was speaking. More like yelling," Auggie explained.

"Okay, got that. And you – Allen is it? – what did you see and do?"

She'd been paying close attention to what Auggie had said, but when the officer turned his attention to Alan, Annie somewhat zoned out. Somehow she knew that he wouldn't say anything to give them away. Alan knew and understood the importance of their jobs. He wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their careers. As Alan talked Annie fought the feeling of nausea that was beginning.

The officer keying his mike after Alan's statement brought her back to the here and now. "Dispatch, I have two dead bodies, need the ME, CSI, a detective, and backup at my location. Sergeant McKenzie has gone to the hospital with one of the suspects. I've been taking statements. It looks like a pretty open and shut justified home invasion self-defense, but I want my 'T's' crossed and my 'I's' dotted just to be safe."

The officer's speaker crackled, "10-4. CSI, detectives, and ME on their way. Sergeant McKenzie advised that they'd be needed. You're not going to like the backup heading your way. For some unfathomable reason the FBI has an intense interest in this one. The local Supervisory Special Agent says they want the scene locked down, fully contained, no press, no outside photos, no interviews by the media at all. We're to keep people back as far as you can. Now, before you get too wrapped around the axle, this was not a casual request on their part and to top it off we have word from the Chief's office that we are to cooperate fully. Period. Do what they say; we'll sort it out later."

The look on the officer's face was at first displeasure, then reluctant resignation.

Hearing the response from dispatch Annie, for the first time, began to have a feeling that she might get out of this with her covert status intact. Or at least she hoped that the FBI was interceding on her, and Auggie's, behalf. All she could do now was to stay calm and as truthful as she could be. Her husband and his family were alive and well; at the moment that was all that mattered. She didn't know how much fallout she'd get when she got back to Langley, but she'd deal with that when the time came. Right now all she had to worry about was how much she'd alienated herself from the rest of Auggie's family sitting in the back of the house.

Under her husband's comforting arm, Annie begins to tremble a bit harder. This time she allowed him to pull her in closer and laid her head on his chest. "Hang on, Annie. We'll get through this," he whispered into her ear. She nodded her head on his chest. "Alan, would you go out back and bring Annie and me a couple of bottles of water? Annie's starting to go in to shock. And check on Jenna. I'm sure she's in shock now, too," Auggie directed.

Alan hesitated a moment. After a nod from the remaining police officer Alan headed to the back of the house. The police officer left the house. He was still out of earshot when Alan returned several minutes later. Before returning to his seat just inside the living room, he handed a bottle of water to Annie and brushed one against his brother's free hand.

Annie took several long draws on the bottle and then said, "Thanks, Alan."

Auggie set his water bottle on the step between his feet and with his unencumbered hand gingerly began to investigate its top.

"It's open, Bro," Alan relayed kindly.

"Where did Officer Dave go?" Auggie inquired as he grasped the bottle and brought it toward his mouth.

"It's Sergeant Jamison," Annie advised. "He's out erecting that yellow and black crime scene tape across the front of the yard from corner of the house to the post at the drive, around the trees at the curb, to the neighbor's fence on the other side and now back to the shrubs on the side of the house. There's a small handful of people gathering on the sidewalk on the other side of street. I wish they'd close the door or let us move – I'm afraid someone is going to take a picture, there are cell phones all over the place." Then Sergeant Jamison began to move the people back farther apparently responding to the radio message.

"I shouldn't be surprised," Auggie said with a snort, "but I'd hoped that perhaps the residents of the Village of Glencoe would be above voyeurism."

"Apparently not," Alan replied snidely. "At least the media hasn't shown up yet."

"That would be a disaster," Auggie said stating the obvious. Annie agreed. She knew that of all of the things that could happen, being seen on air would by far be the worst; and her name in the paper would not be good either. She wasn't sure, but a double homicide anywhere on Chicago's North Shore was bound to garner media interest. Beside her, Auggie took a long drink from the water bottle. From the look on his face Annie bet that he really wished it was a beer. Or, more likely, something even stronger. She could use a shot of Patron herself right now.

"Annie, we need to move you out of the line of sight – Alan, can you get something I can wrap around her? She's getting a chill sitting here," Auggie directed.

**# # # # #**

**ALAN ANDERSON**

As he sat on the ottoman just inside the living room, Alan gathered his thoughts about the incident knowing his turn to answer the officer's questions was coming. He recalled Auggie saying "Well, it seems these guys tried to pull off a home invasion, took one of my sisters-in-law hostage briefly before my wife decided to go all Jason Bourne on them." There was no mistaking the pride in his brother's voice for what his wife had just done. And Jason Bourne was a good description of what she'd done. Frankly, he'd never seen anything even approaching what she'd just done, except in the aforementioned Bourne movies. She was what, 5'-5" and one fifteen? Maybe? Double tough didn't even begin to describe the opinion he was forming.

Alan realized his combat experience was helping him stay calm, besides it had been all over before he could get involved in the actual fight. He knew this was the last thing his brother and his sister-in-law needed to deal with. Annie seemed to be holding it together pretty well, Auggie was right there for her – she was going to have after effects from this; but right now she seemed okay. He was concerned for the effect of having just killed two, maybe three, people. She was going to have an adrenaline crash not too long from now and that might not be pretty. There is no way taking a life sits easily on the mind of anyone but a psychopath and he knew she wasn't that. He thought it definitely best to focus on the immediate serious issue, maintaining their covers, and deal with everything else later. The self-defense argument would be open and shut. Until it was his time to tell things as he'd seen them, Alan began to recall a few bits and pieces of conversation:

"And who are you?" the other officer had asked Auggie.

"August Anderson, son of the house's owners, Alfred and Abigail Anderson. My wife, Anne, and I are here for the holiday from DC."

Alan remembered telling him: 'I'm Gunnery Sergeant Alan Anderson, USMC, also a son of the home's owners. Here from Camp LeJeune." He tried not to smile when he remembered the officer's reaction to Auggie's statement about Annie going all Jason Bourne - "You did all this? Stopped them right here?" the officer had asked looking at Annie somewhat incredulously.

As he had listened to his sister-in-law calmly relate what had happened, Alan grew even more in awe of Annie. The calm, matter-of-fact way she relayed her actions gave him the distinct impression that she was no stranger to extreme violence; that this was, in all likelihood, not the first time she had killed either. Alan remembered the way the officers had related to her. They seemed alternately in awe of her and scared of her, and, between wanting to hi-five her and back up 20 yards to get away from her. He almost laughed at the way the officer barely took his eyes off of her when he went to retrieve the gun – you'd have thought he was taking a bone away from a Doberman.

Speaking of the gun, it hit him that Annie had said "I grabbed his pistol in such a manner that it would not fire and took it away from him …" How did she do that he wondered and made a mental note to ask her when he had an opportunity away from the others.

The way the EMTs were struggling with establishing an airway in the one that had miraculously survived Annie's fury, had him making another mental note, this one in bold print, to never, ever, for any reason, get in a fight with his new sister-in-law. He understood deep inside where he lived just how big a hurt she could put on him even if he had both size and weight on his side. It suddenly occurred to him that Auggie might have had a hand in her training. He wasn't sure he wanted to ask. She might look demure, and strikingly beautiful, but under that innocent façade was the heart of a wildcat. He'd seen that first hand; she took it out, used it, and now it was just sitting there ready to go again. Then, all at once, it occurred to him with a bit of a shock the only other person that had seen Annie's action was Jenna. She was probably going to need careful handling, maybe professional counseling, to get through this and re-establish a connection with Annie. Being close to extreme violence was not something that the rest of his sisters-in-law were accustomed to – especially Jessica and Jenna. As an ER nurse he knew that Olivia had seen the aftereffects of violence, but Jessica and Jenna had been raised, and now lived – or so they had believed – far away from that sort of thing. How they would react was anyone's guess. And he guessed that they would not react well to it now.

Watching his brother, Alan was very aware of just how proud he was of his wife. And, when it was Auggie's turn to tell what he'd experienced, Alan was painfully aware of a change in the way the officer related to Auggie after he realized he was blind. Auggie's slightly clenched fist indicated that he was aware of the difference, too, and was not pleased. But he remained calm, and also matter-of-fact in his delivery of what he'd experienced. Alan couldn't help but smile a bit when Auggie said that he'd hit the floor and lost his cane when the shots began. Yes, his brother had dropped his cane, but he'd also taken a stance such that he'd try to stop anyone that had gotten by his wife.

"Okay, got that. And you – Allen is it? – what did you see and do?" the officer said when he was done with Auggie.

"Alan, A_L_A_N," Alan began slightly irritated. He didn't like it much when people got his name wrong. "I was in the hall, too, but further back, just coming out of the kitchen. I, too, was aware of the home invasion robberies that had been happening here on the North Shore. I could see my brother in the hallway, heard him offer to get the door, and then I heard one of my other brother's wife, Jenna, say she'd get the door. I didn't have a good feeling about this unexpected visitor. When Jenna opened door I saw three guys rush in. The first one in grabbed Jenna and began shouting obscenity laced orders. I saw my brother freeze in place. Then, before I could react, I saw a blur of motion that was my sister-in-law Annie, here, attacking the intruders. Before I could do anything she disarmed and disabled the first one, then there were shots and the others were on the floor – she kicked those two AR's away – then when she looked in my direction I headed to the back door to see if there were more intruders there. I told the rest of the family to go into the family room and I checked the patio door and called the kids in off the deck.

"I'm a Marine Corps firearms instructor and the shots came so fast I'm not sure how many – three or four I think. Maybe more. When I was sure the back was clear I cautiously returned up here after telling everyone to stay out back. I don't think they want to know what happened up here because no one has ventured up here since I told them to stay put, and we definitely don't want any of the kids to see this.

"Jenna's pretty shook up. She's back there seeking comfort in her husband's arms. I'll go get her if you want. Anyway, when I came up here I was incredibly thankful my newlywed brother and his new wife weren't dead on the floor."

The officer keyed his mike, "Dispatch, I have two dead bodies, need the ME, CSI, a detective, and backup at my location in Glencoe. Sergeant McKenzie has gone to the hospital with one of the suspects. I've been taking statements. It looks like a pretty open and shut justified home invasion self-defense, but I want my 'T's' crossed and my 'I's' dotted just to be safe."

The officer's speaker crackled, "10-4. CSI, detectives, and ME on their way. Sergeant McKenzie advised that they'd be needed. You're not going to like the backup heading your way. For some unfathomable reason the FBI has an intense interest in this one. The local SSA says they want the scene locked down, fully contained, no press, no outside photos, no interviews by the media at all. We're to keep people back as far as you can. Now, before you get too wrapped around the axle, this was not a casual request on their part and to top it off we have word from the Chief's office we are to cooperate fully. Period. Do what they say; we'll sort it out later."

The look on the officer's face when he heard that the FBI would be taking over the case almost made Alan laugh out loud. The man was almost livid. Alan figured that the whole department was feeling bitch slapped about the FBI assuming jurisdiction.

But when they heard that transmission from dispatch, both Auggie and Annie seemed to relax a bit more. Seeing his brother and sister-in-law relax so did Alan. He wondered if this turn of events was the direct result of Auggie's call or if something else was going on. Watching Annie and Auggie he realized that they were communicating on a plane nobody else had access to. He hadn't seen that degree of "oneness" ever before. They were definitely independent thinking individuals but they were on exactly the same page at the same time. In that moment, in the middle of all this tragedy and violence, they together were a beautiful thing. To say Auggie had married well would be in the contest for understatement of the millennium.

His thoughts were interrupted when Auggie asked, "Alan, would you go out back and bring Annie and me a couple of bottles of water? Annie's starting to go in to shock. Please check on Jenna. I'm sure she's in shock now, too."

Alan hesitated a moment, looked at the officer in charge obviously wondering if he'd be allowed to leave the area. The officer nodded his approval and then left the foyer.

Before Alan went to the refrigerator to get the water his brother had requested, he checked on the situation in the family room. As he entered the room he was pleased to see that Jenna had calmed down a bit and was just sitting on the sofa beside her husband. Austin still looked angry, but he, too, was sitting calmly on the sofa with one arm around his wife's shoulders. The others looked far from serene, but they were a bit more composed than they were the first time he'd been back there.

"Again, until the police have taken your statements – and that may not be for a while yet – I can't tell you any more details that might influence what you say. There are still two dead bodies on the floor in the entry and that alone will require the officers to do a thorough investigation. The other has been transported to the hospital. Both Annie and Auggie are physically okay. I'm sure you've heard the sirens, the police are here, will be here for a while. A Cook County Medical Examiner, crime scene investigators, and detectives from Glencoe will be arriving shortly. And the FBI will be here, too."

Upon hearing that the FBI would be making an appearance, both Anthony and Austin looked totally surprised.

"Yeah, surprised me, too," Alan agreed. "I don't know what that's about either. We may never know for sure why either. … This may sound odd, but go ahead and feed the kids and whoever else feels that they can eat. It's going to be a long night is all I can say. Auggie asked for some water for him and Annie. I'm going back up front now. I know that you're all dying to know more about what's going on. We'll all tell you that as soon as we can, but in the meantime try to stay back here, or, I guess, on the deck. Tony, would you go clear off the dining table? I think that the detectives and FBI may want to use that room for taking statements."

To Alan's great surprise, Anthony nodded his head that he'd do his brother's bidding. He followed Alan quietly when Alan left to get the bottles of water for Auggie and Annie.

When Alan returned to the front of the house the officer in charge was still out front erecting the crime scene tape. Before returning to his seat just inside the living room, he handed a bottle of water to Annie and brushed one against the back of his brother's free hand.

Annie took several long draws on the bottle and then said, "Thanks, Alan."

Auggie set his water bottle on the step between his feet and with his unencumbered hand began to investigate its top.

"It's open, Bro," Alan relayed understanding implicitly what his brother needed.

"Where did Officer Dave go?" Auggie inquired as he grasped the bottle again.

"It's Sergeant Jamison," Annie advised. "He's out erecting that yellow and black crime scene tape across the front of the yard from corner of the house to the post at the drive, around the trees at the curb, to the neighbor's fence on the other side and now back to the shrubs on the side of the house. There's a small handful of people gathering on the sidewalk on the other side of street. I wish they'd close the door or let us move – I'm afraid someone is going to take a picture, there are cell phones all over the place." Then Sergeant Jamison began to move the people back farther apparently responding to the radio message.

"I shouldn't be surprised," Auggie said with a snort, "but I'd hoped that perhaps the residents of the Village of Glencoe would be above voyeurism."

"Apparently not," Alan replied snidely. Unlike his brother, he was not surprised at the growing crowd outside. "At least the media hasn't shown up yet."

"That would be a disaster," Auggie stated unequivocally.

'Yes,' Alan thought. 'It would not be good for his brother and sister-in-law to have their photos in the paper or on the local or national news. He knew that a double homicide on Chicago's North Shore was bound to get the interest of the media. That wasn't something common to the affluent northern suburbs of Chicago. But is sounded as if law enforcement would try to contain that situation. It occurred to him the fact that the FBI request was backed by the Chief's office might be having a very beneficial effect. He was about to suggest that Annie and Auggie move off the stairs, when Auggie beat him to it.

"Annie, we need to move you out of the line of sight – Alan, can you get something I can wrap around her? She's getting a chill sitting here."

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><p><strong>There it is. Next time well move onto how the rest of the family is dealing with all of this drama. Is anyone still with me? <strong>


	4. The Rest of the Family

**Here's the family's view and reaction to what's happened to Annie, Auggie and Jenna. Might be a few surprise reactions if you've been following my personal saga of Auggie. And Annie. **

**Again, there has been a few other people who have contributed to this chapter. They know who they are and how much I appreciate their input, suggestions, and corrections.**

**And yet again I have to make the usual disclaimer - I have no real (or reel) association to the series created by Chris Ord and Matt Corman.**

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><p><strong>THE FAMILY<strong>

**The Men**

"For the first time since he went blind, Auggie seems content. Honestly content," Anthony mentioned to his father. "Married life seems to be agreeing with him. I think Annie and he are really good for each other. She obviously adores him, and vice-versa. You see how seamlessly they move around; she is right there for him but doesn't smother him at all."

"Yes," Alfred agreed. "He finally seems to be comfortable around us too. I'm so pleased that he finally seems to want to come home," he added.

"Well, treating him like he's capable is probably a big part of that, Dad. When he came in here a bit ago, he was okay with me verbally guiding him to a place to sit down, but I'm not so sure he would have been so happy if I'd gotten up and physically guided him there," Austin explained.

Alfred nodded in agreement. "Yes, you're probably right about that."

"He's been blind long enough that I'm pretty sure that he's gotten the hang of it by now," Adam began before the doorbell interrupted his train of thought. "Wonder who that is?" he asked instead.

Everyone just sort of shrugged their shoulders, but Adam started to get out of his chair when Abigail asked for someone to get the door. He quickly settled back into his seat when he heard Auggie announce from the front hall that he'd get it. Despite his earlier comment, Adam was relieved when he heard Jenna tell Auggie that she'd get the door. No one had the chance to react to the commotion they heard from the front of the house before shots rang out. To a man they sat frozen in stunned silence until they heard movement coming to the back of the house; then they looked one to the other with fearful looks – not one of them knew what to do. When, seconds later, Austin's wife Jenna, came running in, with a look of sheer terror on her face they grew gravely concerned – especially Austin.

"Jenna! What happened? You OK?" Austin asked as he grabbed his wife to him protectively. "What happened, Babe?" Austin asked again as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

Jenna drew back from where she'd buried her head into her husband's chest. Eyes wide open moving erratically from side to side, hands fluttering without purpose, Jenna blubbered with little coherence, "Man … Gun … Annie … shot …."

"Annie's been shot?" Austin asked with alarm. The other three men looked at the hysterical woman in Austin's arms and grew even more alarmed – riveted in place by the sheer incomprehension of what Jenna seemed to be saying. None of them had any training for dealing with a situation like this.

Jenna both shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I ... I ...his gun … I … Oh God! It was so loud, I don't know … there was blood …," they heard her say.

"Easy now," Austin said comfortingly as he pulled his wife back into his embrace, trying desperately to calm her so that he could get a complete thought – and answer – from her. There wasn't any noise from the front entry and they all took that to mean nobody was coming for them, but the corollary, that something, or someone, had intervened, hadn't occurred to them yet.

Moments later, when their wives, looking equally frightened, were ushered in; they were once again stunned into silence until they saw that it was Alan who was shepherding their women. They looked to him for an explanation, all of them wondering "what gun?" but unable to articulate the question.

**The Women**

In the kitchen Abigail, Olivia and Jessica were putting the finishing touches on dinner when the doorbell rang. Abigail, up to her elbows in dishwater cleaning the pots and pans used to prepare the upcoming meal, asked loudly, "Will someone please get the door?"

Olivia began to wipe her hands on a dishtowel but went back to arranging the relish tray when she heard Auggie announced that he'd get it.

Moments later they heard Jenna tell Auggie that she'd get it; then all hell seemed to break loose in the front part of the house. At the first shouted commands in a strange voice, Abigail, without even bothering to dry her hands, reached for the kitchen phone and quickly dialed 911. When asked later about this, she wouldn't be able to say why she did that; just that it had been her first reaction. She had barely touched the final 1 when the shots rang out. When the 911 operator answered Abigail, in hushed tones, advised, "We're being invaded. Shots have been fired." She'd barely gotten the word 'fired' out when Jenna ran through the kitchen to the back of the house; she was confirming the address when Alan hurriedly hobbled past toward the back door. When Abigail turned around to check on her other daughters-in-law, she was surprised to see them close behind her, as if protecting her from whatever might come down the hallway from the front of the house. Or were they seeking protection from her?

Moments later Alan emerged from the back hallway. "Mom, Livvie, Jess," he began excitedly, "I think you need to go into the family room with your husbands until the police arrive. Mom, I'm assuming that you're on the phone to them?"

"Yes. The operator is still on the line with me. He says that an officer will be here in two or three minutes."

"Good," Alan replied.

"What's happening?" Jessica asked. Her fear was palpable.

"You don't want to know, Jess. You're all safe now. At least I think so. Just go be with your husbands until the police ask for you," Alan replied in a no nonsense commanding drill instructor voice.

The women exchanged looks of fearful curiosity but Alan's confidence was infectious and they allowed him to shepherd them out of the kitchen and in to the family room. Olivia and Abigail took seats on the arms of the recliners their husbands were sitting in; Jessica sat on the love seat beside her husband. All three looked at the sobbing Jenna in her husband's arms.

**The Ensemble**

After following the women into the family room, Alan quickly crossed to the patio doors and summoned the four children in from the deck. The two boys and two girls were huddled in the corner of the deck. Alan did not have to ask twice for the teens to come in to the house. As they entered the house they looked at the adults – their parents – quietly sitting in the TV side of the room and went to take seats around the game table in the other half of the spacious room.

Once he was sure that the rest of his family was together and safe, Alan began to head back up to the mess that was in the foyer. As he passed by where Austin sat with his wife sobbing in his arms, Austin looked up questioningly. In that moment Alan paused. He knew that he could not protect the rest of his family from knowing what had just happened. From knowing what Annie had just done; had to do. In as few words as possible Alan responded to Austin's unspoken question. "Someone tried to muscle their way into the house. They've been taken care of. Now all of you just need to stay back here and keep quiet. Police will be here shortly to take everyone's statements. Now I'm going back up front and take care of my brother and Annie."

Abigail's first though was for her blind son. "Auggie. My baby. How's …?" she cried out in concern.

"Both Annie and Auggie are just shaken up, but since they were close to the action they need to stay where they are for now." That statement seemed to appease his mother a bit, so Alan continued, "They're gonna need to talk to Jenna, too. I don't know about the rest of you," Alan carefully went on to explain.

All at once the adults began to talk amongst themselves. Nobody knew anything but what they had heard, but their questions were to each other. Simultaneously Adam and Anthony asked, "Who did the shooting?" And then Abigail asked, "Alan said it was taken care of, who did that?" The only person with answers to those questions was almost out of the room so they all looked at each other with puzzled concern. No one wanted to acknowledge that someone – Annie – had come into their home carrying a concealed weapon. That idea was unfathomable to each and every one of them at the moment.

As he comforted Jenna, Austin felt tiny, sticky, wet spots on her T-shirt. It didn't take him long to figure out what they were from – it was back spatter from the people that got shot – Jenna had been really close. He also couldn't help but wonder if the violence at the front door had been really necessary. A lifetime of being told that compliance was the best response to criminals; let them have what they want and they will leave you alone, had him starting to get really irritated. Within a few seconds the need to blame somebody had him blaming Annie. It had to have been her that screwed this up. Along with most residents of Chicago's northern suburbs, he was aware of the rash of home invasions that had been happening over the last few months. The hoodlums needed to be apprehended, but what made Annie think that it was her place to stop them? Here? Now? He knew it had to be Annie because it certainly could not have been Auggie or Jenna. The hole in his logic became almost immediately obvious and an internal shudder passed over him as he thought what could have happened if Auggie had decided to try and stop the unwanted visitors. And Auggie would have tried; Austin knew that without question – his special forces training wouldn't have been enough. Annie may have prevented that … but it still had to be her fault right? Everybody knew you shouldn't resist.

Austin, not to be put off any longer, looked to where Alan's form was retreating and spoke sharply at his brother, "You tell us what happened! Who got shot and who did the shooting? Whose fault is this? You saw it all, right?" When Alan tried to put him off fearing further escalation of his panic Austin said forcefully, "Bullshit! What happened? How do you know we are safe? What did she do?"

Alan, now worried about confused stories but also seeing that this was going to get out of control if he didn't give his family some information, said, "Okay, I'll tell you what I saw, but that's it until after the police leave. If the police ask you questions, you just tell them what you saw – which was nothing. And what you heard – which was whatever you heard, not what I saw. Okay? What I saw is not your data."

Anthony looked around – making eye contact with every adult in the room – and said, "Alan's right about this. Stick to what you saw and heard." Then turning to Alan he also asked, "Please tell us what happened? So we know Auggie's okay."

Alan briefly explained what had happened saying, "Three armed men forced their way in the door as soon as it was unlocked. The first one grabbed Jenna and jammed a pistol to her head. Then," he paused and they knew from his eyes he was seeing it again in his head, "Annie came out of nowhere; smashed herself right into the first guy; somehow took the gun that had been pointed at Jenna, knocked her loose, put that guy on the ground and shot the other two before they could get their guns up. It was over so fast I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it."

Austin asked incredulously "Annie killed them?"

Alan replied, "Two of them anyway. The other doesn't look so good."

There was a collective gasp. That Annie, Auggie's Annie, their Annie, was capable of stopping a home invasion by three armed men with her bare hands was both shocking and frightening. Except for Alan this was not something they could immediately accept. As they sat there exchanging looks they could see each other processing what Alan had said, putting it together with what they heard. It was consistent. Alan had seen it; Alan wouldn't lie. For a few seconds there was only the sound of Jenna sobbing – more softly now.

Then Austin asked, "Jenna is that what happened?"

Jenna just nodded her head against his chest and, finally, when he asked again quietly, got out a shaky, "Yes, I think so … it was so fast, Annie was so fast and so … so hard … she really whacked me away from him … I know it was Annie that saved me, but I d-don't know ho-how she did that." She looked at Alan and said "She was so fast, she …. It was so loud … Oh my God she could have been killed."

Alan looked at all of them and said, "I know. We could all have been killed, but we weren't."

Austin, finally beginning to understand what had happened, started to get really agitated; his frustration venting irrationally at Annie. And Auggie. He started to get up saying forcefully, "How could he have brought somebody like that – a killer – into this house? I'm going …"

Alan put a hand on Austin's shoulder and pushed him back in his seat saying, "Austin! Breathe through your nose! You aren't going to do anything but sit there! Throw your preconceived suburban utopia notions out of your head, and give thanks that Annie was willing to risk her life to save your ungrateful ass. And the rest of us too."

Jessica, who had been sitting there taking it all in, remembered Annie standing up to her defending Auggie. The phrase "save your ungrateful ass" had been used then with the pronoun applying to her. She looked at Austin and said, "Annie saved all our asses. She's a good person but she's tougher than all of us added up. She dressed me down good one time when I richly deserved it."

Olivia, who had been in the store when that happened, got a small smile and nodded at the memory.

"You give her a chance to tell her side of this and I'm certain you will be really glad she was here and did what she did," Jessica said with finality.

Austin started to struggle back up but Alan's hand did not give an inch. Austin, realizing that he wasn't going anyplace, grunted, "This isn't over yet."

Anthony replied, "Yes, it is. What I've heard at the DA's office is these guys have been getting more and more violent. Last week they tied the family up; stripped the daughter and were preparing to rape her when the police sirens scared them out the back door. It wasn't in the paper because of the pressure from city hall, but it's going to come out now because I'll tell them if nobody else will."

Jenna looked at Austin and said, "They would have done that to Annie and me if they could have. You leave her alone. She's my hero."

Alan looked around; saw that things were settled down a bit – Austin was looking like he wasn't going anyplace – and said, "I need to get back up there to support Annie and Auggie. They are going to need it. You guys stay cool. Okay? We've got this," he added with more confidence than he felt at the moment. "But it's going to take a while for the police to do their thing." Having made his point, Alan headed back out to the front of the house.

Once Alan was out of the room, Austin drew his wife even closer. He looked to Anthony with concern, "Is that true? What you said about the perpetrators of the robberies? That they were wanting more than just jewelry and cash?"

Anthony nodded his head, "Yeah. Their level of violence was escalating. And they weren't leaving many clues to help the police find them. They were smart enough to wear surgical gloves so they weren't leaving fingerprints. Their victims were so traumatized that descriptions were unreliable and very generic – heights varied from average to very tall with no distinguishing scars or tattoos. The only things linking all of the robberies were that they seemed to all wear the same dark clothes each time and the M.O. Word on the street was that they were a gang new to the area and trying to establish a reputation. Law enforcement felt it was just a matter of time before someone got killed. No one ever thought that it would be them that got killed."

"So you're saying that Annie did us all a huge favor?" Austin asked while gently stroking Jenna's hair soothingly.

"Yeah," Anthony agreed seriously.

"What's going to happen to her?" Olivia asked.

"If it was up to me – which, unfortunately, it isn't – I'd give her a medal," Anthony stated. "I don't know what's going to happen to her. She could be in very little trouble, to being arrested for manslaughter or even murder. Going on what little information I have, I'd call it a justified self-defense shooting. It all hinges on if the first officer on scene has that impression of what it was to him. Frankly I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around Annie being capable of what it sounds like she did. If it was Alan … I'd believe it. Of if Auggie could still see, I could definitely see him confronting an invader …" An involuntary shudder passed over Anthony as he thought of Auggie taking on anyone now. "Even now, I think if Auggie could get a hand on someone he'd put a world of hurt on them, but if he'd confronted these guys …"

"That's what I was afraid of when I heard the shots," Abigail said solemnly. Alfred squeezed his wife's hand.

"He didn't," Alfred stated firmly. "All of us are physically fine. Jenna and Annie are going to suffer some emotional trauma, but they're physically okay. I don't know how this will affect August, but Alan seems to be handling it well. I'd expect nothing less from our military men."

"If they'd just complied …" Austin began again.

"If they'd complied," Anthony interrupted, irritated with his brother's one track mind, "Auggie would be dead and we'd be watching at least one of our women being violated! Stop being a jackass, Austin. Alan's right, we are no longer living in a utopian world. Even here on the North Shore we are not immune from the stuff that drugs drive people to do. I firmly believe that those guys were fueled by drugs. And, for all we know, they could be the bored disenfranchised sons of some of our neighbors."

"You think, Dad?" Anthony's oldest son, Lucas, asked from where he sat playing a game of cards with his younger brother and female cousins.

"Yeah, son, I'm afraid that not all of us are able to raise children as positive and well-adjusted as us Andersons do."

A few minutes later, everyone looked toward the opening from the kitchen when they heard footsteps approaching. There was a collective sigh when they saw it was Alan and not a police officer.

"What's happening up front, Alan?" Adam asked, verbalizing what everyone else was thinking.

"Again, until the police have taken your statements – and that may not be for a while yet – I can't tell you any more details that might influence what you say. There are still two dead bodies on the floor in the entry and that alone will require the officers to do a thorough investigation. The other has been transported to the hospital. Both Annie and Auggie are physically okay. I'm sure you've heard the sirens, the police are here, will be here for a while. A Cook County Medical Examiner, crime scene investigators, and detectives from Glencoe will be arriving shortly. And the FBI will be here, too."

Upon hearing that the FBI would be making an appearance, both Anthony and Austin looked totally surprised.

"Yeah, surprised me, too," Alan agreed. "I don't know what that's about either. We may never know for sure why either. … This may sound odd, but go ahead and feed the kids and whoever else feels that they can eat. It's going to be a long night is all I can say. Auggie asked for some water for him and Annie. I'm going back up front now. I know that you're all dying to know more about what's going on. We'll all tell you that as soon as we can, but in the meantime try to stay back here, or, I guess, on the deck. Tony, would you go clear off the dining table? I think that the detectives and FBI may want to use that room for taking statements."

Anthony nodded his head that he'd do his brother's bidding. Actually he was happy to have something to do; and it would give him a chance to peek at what was really happening in the front part of the house. He willingly followed his brother when Alan retreated into the kitchen and went to open the refrigerator.

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><p><strong>To those of you have been following this saga since the beginning - did anyone's reaction surprise you? I know that you've all created pictures of Auggie's family in your own minds. Did anyone break your concept of them?<strong>

**Next up, when I'm not sure, the local detective, CSI, ME and the FBI will be showing up. What will they have to say to Annie? Auggie? Jenna? And Alan? Lots of research has been happening. (And moving and unpacking so time to write has been scarce.)**


	5. Statement Taking  Annie and Jenna

**Sorry that it's taken so long to update. Life just sort of got in the way. Packing up a house and then unpacking it somewhere else is a bit more than I remembered. Sorting through almost 25 years of memories (and junk) takes a long time, but we are now sort of settled. Hopefully I'll be able to find more time to write now.**

**fbobs and Mandy58 have contributed to this work of fiction. I hope they both know how much I appreciate their input.**

**Once again, I have no connection to the writers, directors or producers of the TV show Covert Affairs on the USANetwork. I'm eagerly awaiting July 10th along with the rest of you**.

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><p><strong>Annie Anderson<strong>

Annie, now sitting on the sofa in the living room – out of the line of sight of the gathering crowd on the street outside – began to tremble slightly. Not wanting to appear weak, she looked at her hands and willed them to stop shaking. Beside her Auggie reached over and tried to take her hand. As much as she wanted the comfort of his hand in hers, Annie pulled her hand away. "Can't let you hold that hand, Auggie. You'll get blood and GSR on you," she explained as he searched in vain for her hand. "I hope the CSIs get here soon and get their evidence off of me. I'd really like to wash my hands."

Auggie dropped his hand to Annie's thigh and began to gently rub small circles on it. "Sorry. I forgot. Don't want to contaminate the evidence," he acknowledged. After a moment's thought he added, "It's okay, Annie. We'll get through this."

Alan, still on the ottoman near the arched passageway to the entry hall, nodded in agreement. "On so many levels these next few hours are going to be unpleasant I fear, but we're behind you one-hundred percent," Alan added.

"I know you two are," Annie said in a voice she had to will to be steady. "I have no idea what possessed me …"

"Annie," Auggie said sharply, "don't. You did what you did because you saw something that the rest of us didn't. Couldn't. Don't second guess yourself now."

"Yes, Annie," Alan added, "I overheard Anthony tell the rest of the family something that I can't tell you right now. What you did was … remarkable."

The clatter of dishes in the next room made Annie look toward the sound. A look of puzzlement came over her features.

Auggie cocked his head slightly at the sound also.

"I asked Anthony to clear off the dining room table in case the police want to use that room for taking statements," Alan offered by way of explanation. "Out of the rest of the family in the back, I thought either him or Adam would be able to handle a glimpse of the bodies by the front door."

An understanding grin spread over Auggie's face. "Yeah, I'm sure he's been to a few crime scenes in his day. He didn't give you a hard time about doing it?"

"Surprisingly not," Alan replied.

Outside the slamming of car doors signaled the arrival of more police personnel. Annie wondered which disciplines were arriving now – the local detectives? The crime scene investigators? The medical examiner? She really hoped that it would be the FBI field agent. Him she could deal with. He'd be more predictable than the local people – he'd be an arrogant ass in all likelihood. She smiled briefly remembering her encounters with her DC nemesis Vincent Rossabi.

The first person through the front door this time was Sgt. Jamison; he was closely followed by an older man dressed in a white jumpsuit. Annie wasn't sure if he was the medical examiner or a crime scene investigator. When he took out a camera and began taking pictures she still wasn't sure which crime scene discipline he represented. As the man in the white jumpsuit took copious amounts of pictures and pretty much ignored the bodies on the floor, Annie came to the conclusion that he was a crime scene investigator. Shortly after the man in the white jumpsuit began doing his job, Sgt. Jamison was joined by another man approximately his own age – late 30s to early 40s – in a cheap brown suit.

"Mrs. Anderson," Sgt. Jamison said addressing Annie, "this is Detective Lynch. He'd like a few words with you. Alone. Is there somewhere we could go to have a bit of privacy?"

"The dining room is being cleared of the dinner dishes," Alan stated. "On the left off the hallway," he added pointing to the wall separating the two rooms. "We thought you might want to use it to take statements."

"Thanks," the detective said nodding toward Alan. "Mrs. Anderson," he commanded gently.

Annie rose to follow the detective. Beside her Auggie rose also.

"Where do you think you're going?" Detective Lynch barked at Auggie.

"With my wife," Auggie stated firmly.

"I'll get your statement in a little bit," the detective said firmly.

"She's not talking to you unless I'm with her."

"It's okay, Auggie," Anthony said coming in to the room from the hallway. "I'll be with her for you."

"And you are?"

"Anthony Anderson. I'm a lawyer and her brother-in-law. I'll be sitting in on all statement taking."

"That's not necessary, Tony," Annie quickly advised.

"Maybe not, Annie, but it's going to happen. Everyone will have benefit of counsel needed or not. I want to make sure this is done correctly right from the beginning."

Detective Lynch surveyed his surroundings, the three people in the room and a very determined looking Anthony. "No one is under arrest. I'm just taking statements."

"Doesn't matter what you are doing. This family will have legal representation and advice from here on out," Anthony stated firmly. "I know how you guys work sometimes – making mountains out of molehills. That's not happening here. We're not trying to cover anything up, but I'm not about to let you railroad my sister-in-law either."

"Anthony Anderson," Detective Lynch said to himself and looked at Anthony as if trying to recall why the name was familiar. "You're not ADA Tony Anderson …?"

"I am. This is our parent's house. We were gathering for a family dinner when this happened."

"Oh. Okay. Mrs. Anderson, shall we proceed?" the detective asked wearily as he gestured toward the opening between the living room and the hallway.

"It's okay, honey," Annie said to Auggie. "Tony will be there. I'll be okay."

Auggie reached out to reassuringly touch his wife on her left arm. "Tell the truth and then do what Tony says," he said as he sat back down.

Annie followed Detective Lynch and Sgt. Jamison into the dining room and took a seat at one end of the long table with her back to the outside wall. Anthony took the seat to her immediate left and the two police officers took seats across from them.

Before the interview could begin, the CSI entered the room. "Is this the alleged shooter?" he asked pointing at Annie.

"Yes," Sgt. Jamison said. "Mrs. Anne Anderson."

"I'll need to gather evidence from her before you start. I'll need to photograph her hands and arms, the blood splatter on her shirt. Actually, I need to enter the shirt into evidence. Mrs. Anderson, do you have another shirt you can change in to?"

"You just sit tight, Annie. Don't say anything until I get back. Not a word. Understand?"

Annie nodded her head. Anthony left and came back in a few minutes with a white bag with the Lord & Taylor logo emblazoned across the front. He also had what looked to be a digital recorder in his other hand. After placing the recorder on the table, he handed the bag to Annie. "Jessica went shopping before we came over here today. She picked up a couple of tee shirts. They might be a size too big, but I don't think she'd mind you borrowing one for the evening – or what's going to be left of it once we get done here."

"The evening has been …" Annie started.

A stern look from Anthony caused Annie to snap her mouth shut. She took the bag from her brother-in-law and placed it on the table in front of her. Addressing the CSI, "I'm ready. Do you want to do it here? Or in the hallway?"

"Here is fine," the older man said. "If you'd stand up, hold your arms out at waist height with your palms up."

Annie did as she was instructed. The CSI took his pictures, then had Annie turn her palms to the floor and took another series of shots of her arms and hands, and then he asked, politely, for the shirt.

Reaching into the bag Annie withdrew the first shirt her hand touched – a navy blue tee with a white Capricorn design on the front. "I'm going to turn my back on everyone, but if you wouldn't mind closing your eyes or stepping out of the room, I would very much appreciate that."

All but the CSI stepped into the hallway and turned their backs to the dining room. After quickly taking her blood and GSR spattered shirt off, Annie held it out for the CSI to take and place into the brown paper evidence bag he held. As soon as she'd donned the slightly too large navy blue shirt, Annie advised the detective and Anthony, "You can come back in now. I'm decent."

The two local cops sat in the chairs they had recently vacated while the CSI took several swabs from Annie's arms and hands. He then took several close-up photos of the gunshot residue on Annie's hands. Once he'd gotten the information from Annie's body that he deemed necessary, the CSI quietly left the room to complete what he needed to do in the other room.

Anthony, now sitting beside Annie at the table, asked as he turned Annie's hand over to lay palm up on the table, "Doesn't that hurt?"

Shrugging her shoulders slightly Annie replied, "It's starting to."

Anthony rose from his chair and crossed to the opening between the dining room and the hallway. The loudness and command in his tone startled everyone as Anthony bellowed toward the back of the house, "Adam!"

After a faint response from the other end of the house, Anthony continued, a bit less loudly, "Do you or Livvie have a medical bag with you? Annie has a wound that needs to be looked after. Looks like it may need to be stitched up."

After Adam's brief affirmative statement, Annie heard someone exit the house and then return a brief time later. Within a few minutes of Anthony's first shouted request for his older doctor brother, Adam and Olivia entered the dining room. Adam carried a small black medical bag; Olivia had a large stainless steel bowl of warm water and a couple of fluffy white towels. The pair came around the end of the table and Anthony moved out of their way.

Olivia sat the bowl on the table and laid out one of the towels so that Annie could place her wounded hand on it. Taking a white washcloth from the basin of water, Olivia gently washed the dried blood from her sister-in-law's hand. As the local law enforcement officers looked on with impersonal interest, Adam further cleaned the gash on Annie's hand with part of the contents of a bottle of hydrogen peroxide; applied a generous amount of antibiotic salve; pulled it together with a few steri-strips; and then wrapped her hand in sterile gauze. Except for a few comments between themselves, Adam and Olivia worked in silence. Once he was done wrapping Annie's hand, Adam said softly, "I'll check this again tomorrow. Keep it clean and dry and it should heal nicely. If it gets too uncomfortable Mom's got both acetaminophen and ibuprophen in the house. Take some. Don't try to tough it out. Okay?"

"Thanks you two, it feels better already," Annie said as she nodded her head at Adam's slight admonition.

After Adam and Olivia left the area, Anthony resumed his seat beside Annie, turned on the digital recorder and placed it in the center of the table midway between Annie and Detective Lynch. He nodded to the detective that he could begin.

"Would everyone at the table please identify yourself? I'll begin I am Detective Gregory Lynch of the Glencoe Village police department. I'll be conducting the interview."

"Sergeant David Jamison, Glencoe Village Police Department. First law enforcement officer on scene."

"Anthony W. Anderson, Assistant District Attorney for the City of Chicago and legal counsel for the current interviewee, Anne Anderson."

After quickly assessing the two men across the table from her, and seeing nothing that indicated hostility from them, Annie stated clearly, "Anne Catherine Walker-Anderson." Even though she saw no indications that this new police officer was hostile towards her, or the whole family for that matter, Annie did not feel safe. She felt a new wave of adrenaline hit her system. This time she felt the 'fluttering butterflies in the stomach' syndrome.

"Mrs. Anderson, you understand that you are not under arrest and that we are simply taking your statement of what happened here this evening," Detective Lynch advised in a non-threatening tone.

After a quick glance at Anthony, Annie firmly stated, "Yes. I understand that I am not under arrest and am only giving a statement of the facts."

"Where do you live?"

"I am visiting my husband's family from Reston, Virginia. That's a suburb of Washington, DC."

"What's your occupation?"

Without batting an eye, Annie said, "I work in the acquisitions department of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC."

"You have a wound that has just been treated on the palm of your left hand," Detective Lynch stated. "How did you get that?"

Looking at her bandaged hand, Annie said, with a bit of sheepishness, "I'm not exactly sure. I must have gotten it when I jammed my hand on the slide of the first boy's pistol. I did that to keep it from firing before I wrenched it away from him."

"How did you know how to do that?" Detective Lynch asked with obvious curiosity. Annie wondered if that was personal or professional curiosity and quickly came to the conclusion that it was probably a bit of both; but it was a valid professional question.

After a brief nod from Anthony, Annie answered. "I travel a lot for my job. Sometimes my travels take me to places that you might call unsavory. As the child of a career Army officer I've always had an interest in the personal self-defense arts. After a few close calls on the job, I intensified my self-defense training and have black belts in several forms of martial arts. I also have had some weapons training, just in case the need ever arose. But I don't currently own my own gun."

"Okay. I'm somewhat amazed at you though. Will you describe, in your own words, what you did from the time the doorbell rang?"

Annie looked at Anthony. He nodded his encouragement, so she launched into her explanation and told the detective almost the exact same account of her actions, and thoughts, as she had Sgt. Jamison when he'd asked her to tell him what had happened. She emphasized her fear for her family's – especially for Auggie's and Jenna's – safety if she didn't act. Even though she knew that he'd be upset with her if he ever found out she thought so, Annie honestly told the detectives how much she feared for Auggie's safety because of his blindness. Of course she would vehemently deny ever saying it if Anthony ever shared that tidbit of information with his youngest brother.

The detective calmly took notes as he carefully listened to Annie's account of the incident. When she was finished, he looked over at Sgt. Jamison, "Is that what she told you?"

Nodding his head slightly, Sgt. Jamison replied, "Not word for word, but yeah, that's essentially what she told me when I asked."

"I need to talk to the other woman. Jenna is it? Mrs. Anderson, you're free to go. You can finish cleaning up now, too."

"Thanks," Annie replied as she got up. She wasn't too far out of the room on her way back to Auggie, when she heard Detective Lynch ask Sgt. Jamison: "Did you believe her?" The sergeant's response brought a smile to her face: "Yup. She's had time to calm down a bit now, but when I first came on scene she was still pretty on edge. I believed her then, and nothing I've seen or heard since will shake that first impression. She might look like your average socialite, but underneath that calm exterior beats the heart of a warrior."

**Jenna Anderson**

Under the tender ministrations of her husband's gentle, reassuring touches, Jenna began to recover from her earlier fright. Her hysterical sobs quieted and her breathing returned to something resembling normal. Even though she thought she understood her husband's knee-jerk reaction, she didn't like it. Although it was nice to be loved so much that your endangerment could create that sort of reaction from the one that loved you, it was also annoying, in a frightening sort of way. It upset her, but not as much as having the gun shoved at her head, that her beloved husband would blame the woman who had saved her life. And that he would blame his own brother blew her mind. She didn't know what she could say to change his mind. Cuddling further into Austin's embrace, Jenna knew she had to try to get him to change his frame of mind about Annie.

"Austin, honey," Jenna began in as strong a voice as she could muster, "Please stop being mad at Annie. And Auggie. Neither of them did anything wrong. We were lucky they were here. That Annie was here. And she wouldn't have been here without Auggie."

"I know she wouldn't have been here without Auggie. There are two dead bodies in the foyer because of her," Austin stated. "In the matter of a few seconds she's managed to turn my world inside out. I'm beginning to see everyone else's point of view on that."

"Good," Jenna said relieved to know that Austin was calming down also.

For the next few minutes the conversation turned to other things. No one seemed to want to think about what was happening in the front part of the house.

Jenna could hear muffled conversations going on in the other room. Even though she had an intense desire to know what was happening in the front part of the house, Jenna resisted the urge to get up and go find out. She could still feel the shock of being grabbed around her neck and her head hurt where the gun had been slammed against it. Wondering if she had a bruise, Jenna asked Austin, "Honey, do I have a bruise on my head where he hit it with the gun? Here?" Pointing at the area on her head she inadvertently touched it. "Ouch! That's tender."

"Uh … sit still, let me see … yes, you do. That guy hit you in the head with the barrel of his gun! He could have killed you!"

"Yes, that is exactly what he did. He pointed a gun at my head and if his finger had twitched on the trigger he'd have blown my brains out." Anger with the man that had assaulted her and that Annie had savagely attacked overcame her. "I hope he was one of them that Annie killed!"

Austin gave her a squeeze and said, "Don't get all worked up again honey. You were just starting to relax a little."

"But what if the detectives and the police think like you did? That it's all Annie's fault. That she shouldn't have done what she did."

"Why would they do that?" Austin questioned slightly incredulous.

"You did. Thinking about it, what you said is exactly what I read in the papers from all the so-called experts who have never had a bruised temple from having a loaded gun whacked into it; experts who haven't almost wet their pants in terror when they thought they were in the hands of a psycho freak with a loaded gun."

"They don't react like that …" Austin replied soothingly.

"They do to! Read the papers. That guy defended his house from someone that was trying to kill him and they filed charges against him for having a gun. Look at the false conviction rate on the Illinois Death Row, the people who were totally innocent convicted by ambitious prosecutors and police looking for political advancement."

"Glencoe isn't like that."

"The Glencoe police chief came from the Chicago PD. Politics is huge around here, everybody knows that. What if they just want to convict somebody – anybody – to get coverage in the paper, or on the twenty-four hour news cycle that spews news like this like a confetti factory?"

"Glencoe isn't like that."

Pulling away from her husband's embrace, Jenna shifted her position so that she looked straight at Austin. "Then why did you think that? Why did you think it was Annie's fault those guys came through the door with guns? Why did you react like you did when it's perfectly obvious that Annie is a hero? She ran right at a guy that pointed his gun at her and took it away before he could pull the trigger. She could be lying dead on the floor in there right now. Auggie would have tried to protect us. He is Special Forces trained, but he wouldn't have been able to get a hand on them before they shot him dead."

Austin sighed and shook his head. "I realize that about Annie and Auggie. I don't know why I reacted as I did. I find I don't have an answer that I'm proud of to any of your questions and your view of what happened is compelling. I'm beginning to see that perhaps my reaction was wrong."

"So how do we keep Annie from being falsely accused of something to fuel political ambitions – to prove to the electorate they don't favor us well-to-do people here in Glencoe, or some crap like that?"

"They wouldn't do that. You know Tony wouldn't do that. Tony has the Anderson value system we all have; that all you women have too," Austin explained.

"Tony isn't going to be the prosecutor," Jenna observed.

From where she sat on the loveseat Jessica chimed in, "Jenna, I understand your concerns, and they are real to a degree. But right here, right now, this evening, the truth is our friend."

"What do you mean?" Jenna asked wide-eyed.

"Based on what Alan told us, and what I've gleaned from things Tony has said about other cases, this is a clear cut case of self-defense – they entered violently, made deadly threats, were subdued by a resident legally entitled to be where she was using her bare hands and the gun they threatened us with."

"What if they don't see it that way?" Jenna demanded.

"In the end, they have to because those are the facts. We have plenty of witnesses. The crime scene data has to support what actually happened. What is important is to not give them any excuse to doubt us. Keep it simple. Give the shortest truthful answer you can. Don't elaborate; don't infer anything. Just say what you saw and heard and felt. Felt as in contact – how you felt the arm around your neck; felt the gun banged into your head causing that emerging bruise. What you did which was to try to get back here after Annie got you lose."

"What if the facts aren't enough? I've read stories, Patterson, Connelly, Sanford, where the police are less than honest …"

"Tony won't let that happen. If I know my husband, he will be right here for us. He knows all their tricks; they know he knows all their tricks; and Tony is family. Auggie and Annie might be able to kick their collective asses in the foyer, but Tony can do the same thing in legal arguments if he has to."

"Tony will be there when they question me?"

"Absolutely!"

From the other room Jenna, and the others, heard Anthony urgently yell for Adam.

Without getting out of his seat, Adam shouted back, "What do you want, Tony?

The less loud response from Anthony visibly alarmed those in the room. "Do you or Livvie have a medical bag with you? Annie has a wound that needs to be looked after. Looks like it may need to be stitched up."

Quickly, and with some alarm, Adam rose from his recliner and responded to Anthony, "Yes. I'll get what I have and be right there."

"I'll get some warm water and towels," Olivia advised as she rose from her seat and followed her husband.

Jenna heard Adam leave the house through the back door, and, while he was out of the house, Olivia rummaging in the kitchen and then running water. When Adam came back into the house she couldn't hear them anymore. With a bit of apprehension she waited for a scream or loud moan from Annie as her medically trained brother- and sister-in-law tended to her; hearing neither, she relaxed a bit and tried to recall when Annie might have gotten hurt. Not being able to recall that made Jenna a bit uneasy. The incident was but a blur to her; would she be able to give a coherent account when she was questioned?

When Adam and Olivia returned to their seats a few minutes later, Abigail asked earnestly, "Was Annie shot?"

"No, Mom. Annie has not been shot. She has a gash on the palm of her left hand. Livvie and I have cleaned and bandaged it. It will take a bit of time to heal, but she's not hurt that badly. Once it's scabbed over she'll be able to get rid of the bandages that make it look a lot worse than it actually is."

"What's Tony doing?" Alfred asked when there was a collective relieved sigh from those in the room.

"It appears he's putting his law degree to good use," Olivia answered. "They've just started questioning Annie. Tony is right by her side. I doubt that he'll let her say anything that might make her look bad to the cops. There's a uniformed patrol officer and another guy – a detective I'm assuming – that seems to be the one conducting the interview."

"Does that information help?" Austin asked taking Jenna's hand in his and squeezing it reassuringly.

"Yes," Jenna replied. Knowing that Anthony would be there was reassuring, but she still was nervous. Fearful that she'd inadvertently say something wrong.

"Am I forgiven?" Austin asked quietly.

"By me, of course. But the one you need to make your peace with is Annie. Proactive is best with that woman. Trust me on this. She can be pure hell on wheels physically and verbally."

"I'm picking up on that," admitted Austin.

"So are Olivia and I," agreed Adam.

"What do you guys think?" Jenna asked looking for more evidence to cut down on her doubts about being questioned.

"Tony will keep them on the straight and narrow," Olivia said and then added, "When I was still working in the ER I saw rape victims, victims of muggings, robberies, and home invasions brought into the ER barely clinging to life. I saw way more victims in the ER than I did criminals. I sometimes wondered why a big strong guy got nearly killed by a criminal half his size. In fact I asked one once."

"What did he say?" Austin asked with alarm.

"He said: 'I was told not to resist. Biggest mistake I ever made.' He had awful injuries that were going to scar him for life; his face was all cut up."

"What did the rape victims say?" Jessica queried.

"That next time they will cut an attacker's balls off before they will submit like the experts recommend."

"You agree with me that Annie did the right thing?" Jenna demanded to know.

"Absolutely. I can hardly wait to give that girl a hug and thank her for our lives. And to thank Auggie for falling in love and bringing us a guardian angel disguised as a beautiful blonde." Olivia smiled a bit at herself for that one. Despite herself, Jenna smiled, too – the girls had all long ago agreed Annie was indeed very striking and wondered if their brother-in-law knew just how attractive his wife was.

Adam added quietly, "I'm right there with you honey."

"So am I," Abigail added. "So am I."

Just then, a uniformed patrol officer appeared in the doorway and said, "Ms. Jenna Anderson, Detective Lynch would like to take your statement now."

Jenna felt Austin give her a final squeeze and heard him say, "Remember. Just tell it like it was." She nodded, got to her feet, and walked steadily in the direction of the doorway to meet the officer.

Annie was in the hallway heading toward the living room when Jenna entered the front hallway. "Annie! Are you OK? I haven't seen you since … I've been so worried about you."

As Annie turned toward her, Jenna was relieved to see a slight smile on her hero's face. Quietly Annie responded, "I'm okay Jenna, really. Might have some bruises on my ribs and right arm … Oh my, you'll need a bucket of concealer for that bruise! Are you okay?"

"An annoying headache, partly sinus from crying, but mostly from the bruise." She looked at Annie trying to get a better clue what to expect. The hint of a smile was reassuring, but that could just be that Annie was glad it was all over.

Apparently Annie understood the look because she said, "Detective Lynch was straight with me Jenna. Just tell it like it was. I did." And then Annie was gone in the direction of the foyer. Apparently they were going to keep her segregated from the rest of the family?

At that point the man in the brown suit rose from the table, turned toward her and asked, "Mrs. Jenna Anderson?"

"Yes."

"I'm Detective Lynch, Glencoe PD. This is Sergeant Jamison."

"And I'm your brother-in-law Tony." Anthony added with a sly wink.

She was grateful for Anthony's remark; it made her feel that at least she wasn't alone and almost immediately she surprised herself by answering, "Tony. I knew I'd seen you someplace before."

Anthony quickly smiled back and looked in Detective Lynch's direction. Jenna picked up on the cue that they would start questioning her, so she turned that way too. When Anthony gestured toward a particular chair, Jenna went around the table and took a seat; Anthony slipped into the seat beside her. Leaning over he whispered, "Do like Annie advised. Keep it short and factual. I'm recording everything so they cannot come back and twist your statement. Not that I think they'd do that anyway, but …"

Jenna managed a weak smile. "Okay, as short and as factual as I can. It all happened so fast."

The detective cleared his throat ominously. "Mrs. Anderson, shall we get this over with?"

"Yes, let's do that," Jenna responded.

"Please state your full name and where you live."

Jenna, in a voice stronger than she'd thought possible, stated her full name and address.

"Now, starting with where you were when the doorbell rang, tell us what happened."

After taking in a lung full of air and letting it out, Jenna launched into her story, "Some of what happened is a blur, but my sister-in-law Annie and I were coming down the main stairs."

An alarmed shout from Alan in the next room made her stop in mid-sentence. The person in the white jumpsuit in the hallway when Alan shouted disappeared out of her sight and Alan was quiet so she resumed her statement.

"Like I was saying, Annie and I were on the stairs when the doorbell rang. My brother-in-law August – we call him Auggie – was in the hallway and said that he'd get the door when my mother-in-law, Abigail Anderson, asked someone to get the door. At first I was going to let him, but Auggie's blind and I thought that maybe someone who could see should get the door, so I hurried down the stairs. Now, don't get me wrong, Auggie is far from helpless, but something about him answering the door this time just didn't seem right. Anyway, I went and began to unlock the door. Auggie stopped where he was in the hallway and let me. As soon as the last latch was undone the door flew in and the next thing I knew was someone had an arm around my neck and had a gun jammed into my head. He was yelling at us to get in the next room. I was so scared I almost peed my pants. This next part is what's a blur. Next thing is Annie rushing in and getting between me and the guy that had me around the neck. It was like all in one motion that she got between me and him and shoved me away. As I was stumbling away I heard the gun go off. I don't know what happened after that because I was running to the back of the house. I almost knocked Auggie over when I ran past him."

"Can you describe the person who grabbed you?"

"Not really. He seemed to be about a head taller than me. All I really saw was his arm going around me. He was wearing a dark long sleeved shirt of some kind. And, I think, he was wearing those purple surgical type latex gloves."

"When you came back in here to make your statement, did you see the bodies on the floor by the door?"

Shaking her head, Jenna answered, "No, not really. I tried not to look because I didn't want to see them. I'm not used to seeing that sort of thing."

"Okay. So what you said he was wearing is from what you recall seeing at the time and not what you'd seen afterward."

"Yeah. Well, as I was running away I did sort of look back over my shoulder to see if someone was coming after me, and I saw the bodies on the floor and blood starting to pool around one of them, but I tried to block that out of my mind. I'm going to have enough nightmares now as it is. I'm just feeling very glad to be alive."

"You said you heard the gun go off. How many times did it go off?"

"It was so loud and sort of echoed a bit in the foyer. I think it was 'bangbang' 'bangbang'; but I'm not sure. Could have been more than that or less. My ears were sort of ringing after the first one."

Just then the CSI entered the dining room again. "Is this the lady that was held hostage briefly?"

"Yes," Detective Lynch said.

"I'm going to need her top, too."

"Jenna," Anthony, who had been completely silent during Jenna's statement, began, "There's a clean shirt in the Lord & Taylor bag on the table. Annie had to give up her shirt, too. I know Jessica won't mind loaning one to you, too."

"Okay," Jenna said nervously. "How are we going to do this?"

"Annie turned her back on us as we waited in the hallway," Anthony advised. Again, all but the CSI went into the hallway while Jenna pulled the tags off of one of the remaining tee shirts in the white bag with the black logo and put it on after handing her shirt to the CSI. He put Jenna's blood splattered shirt into a bag like the one he'd used for Annie's and left the room.

Just as Annie had done, Jenna advised the men in the hallway that she'd changed and they could come back in.

Jenna had sat back down when Anthony and the two law enforcement officers turned around and reentered the dining room. "Is there anything else you need from me?" she asked with a bit of feistiness.

"Just an observation," Detective Lynch said. "You seem awfully calm for what you've just gone through."

"Looks can be deceiving," Jenna advised. "I was very upset during and just after. I was bordering on hysterical. I've had my husband and family to distract me for the last almost an hour now. I've had a chance to calm myself so that I could give you as coherent a statement of what I experienced as I could. The only thing anyone has told me is to tell the truth. I've done that to the best of my ability."

"Thank you, Mrs. Anderson," Detective Lynch said calmly. "We'll let you go back to your husband now."

"Thank you," Jenna said as she rose from the seat beside her brother-in-law. Slowly and deliberately she walked around the table and into the back part of the hallway. Resisting the urge to turn and look at the bodies in the entryway – the one look she'd had when she was fleeing had really been one look too many – Jenna moved from the front hallway into the kitchen area As soon as she was out of the line of sight of the detective and patrolman, Jenna picked up the pace and almost ran the last few yards back into the family room. She was so glad that it was over and not anything like she'd envisioned, but she was also very uneasy that she hadn't done Annie any favors by telling her side of the event.

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><p>Now we have seen how Annie and Jenna are dealing with the situation. It will be Alan's and Auggie's turn next. Is anyone still with me?<p> 


	6. Auggie's Thoughts

**I apologize for the length of time between updates. I'd written a chapter, got started on this one and realized that this one needed to come before the one that I'd written and had edited. The next update won't be this long. I promise.**

**There's been a few who have had a part in the formation of this chapter - a couple who have no connection to this site at all. Their insight into what they assisted with was much appreciated. Mandy58 and fbobs have kept me on track.**

**As always, no copywrite infringement has been intended. I just have these crazy ideas for characters created by others that I like to write down and share.**

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><p><strong>Auggie Anderson<strong>

'_Out of sight, out of mind,'_ Auggie thought as Alan insisted that he and Annie move to a part of the house less visible from the street. Even though he tried to be aware of things that he could no longer see, sometimes the obvious escaped him – the door was open and people were gathering on the street outside. He should have moved them off the stairs long ago. But, at least, Alan was looking out for them. He was thankful for that.

Beside him, Annie was beginning to tremble slightly. Was that only because her body was reacting to the reduced levels of adrenaline in her system? Or was she beginning to think about what she'd done? He chose to believe that it was her coming down from the adrenaline dump. It might not be pretty when she came down, but come down she would, and he'd try his damnedest to be there for her while she did. Reaching out with his left hand he searched for her hand so he could provide his support that way.

"Can't let you hold that hand, Auggie. You'll get blood and GSR on you," she calmly explained as he searched in vain for her hand. "I hope the CSIs get here soon and get their evidence off of me. I'd really like to wash my hands."

Auggie dropped his hand to Annie's thigh and began to gently rub small circles on it with his thumb. "Sorry. I forgot. Don't want to contaminate the evidence," he acknowledged. _Forgot. You've been forgetting some pretty important things in the last few minutes,_ he chastised himself silently. He'd have to offer his support verbally. "It's okay, Annie. We'll get through this."

"On so many levels these next few hours are going to be unpleasant I fear, but we're behind you one-hundred percent," Alan added from where he sat somewhere to Auggie's right; near the entry from the foyer. The foyer that was now the scene of a crime. The first officers on scene seemed comfortable with it being a self-defense shooting. Auggie could only hope that the detective assigned would conclude the same. Self-defense should be obvious, but sometimes those who were sworn to 'serve and protect' had other ideas.

Annie's saying, "I know you two are," brought his thoughts back to her and the immediate concern of keeping her calm and safe. "I have no idea what possessed me …." Her voice was strained and he couldn't quite tell her state of mind. Her words alone led him to think she was apologizing for something she had no reason to apologize for.

"Annie," Auggie said sharply, "Don't. You did what you did because you saw something that the rest of us didn't. Couldn't. Don't second guess yourself now."

"Yes, Annie," Alan quickly added, "I overheard Anthony tell the rest of the family something that I can't tell you right now. What you did was … remarkable."

In the next room – the dining room – Auggie heard the clatter of dishes and cocked his head slightly at the sound.

"I asked Anthony to clear off the dining room table in case the police want to use that room for taking statements," Alan offered by way of explanation. "Out of the rest of the family in the back, I thought either him or Adam would be able to handle a glimpse of the bodies by the front door."

An understanding grin spread over Auggie's face. "Yeah, I'm sure he's been to a few crime scenes in his day. He didn't give you a hard time about doing it?"

"Surprisingly not," Alan replied. Anthony willingly doing something like clearing the dishes from the dining room table surprised Auggie. He wondered what his brother's real motive was. But he didn't have time to wonder about that now. The slamming of car doors outside signaled the arrival of what could only be more police personnel.

Auggie listened closely. Two people were coming up the walk fairly closely together. A third lagged a few yards behind the first pair. Without hearing their voices Auggie couldn't tell if one might be the first officer on scene returning. He hoped that one of the new arrivals would be the FBI agent. Only then would he feel comfortable that his and Annie's covert statuses might be preserved.

The first person through the door took a position to the living room side of the entry door. The other person crinkled when they moved. It took Auggie a moment to place the soft sound, but he finally placed it – the other person was wearing paper coveralls and paper booties over his shoes. Since they did not stay in the area of the door, Auggie thought they were probably the crime scene investigators. The evidence they collected would prove that Annie had acted in self-defense.

He still had no clue to the identity of the first person until a radio crackled. Then he knew it was a patrol officer, but Auggie still wasn't sure it was Sergeant Jamison, the first officer on scene. The third person entered the house and they and the patrol officer approached Auggie and Annie.

"Mrs. Anderson," Sgt. Jamison said obviously addressing Annie since she was the only Mrs. Anderson in the room, "this is Detective Lynch. He'd like a few words with you. Alone. Is there somewhere we could go to have a bit of privacy?"

_Alone?_ Auggie didn't think so. Besides wanting to know exactly what happened, he didn't want Annie to face this new person without backup.

"The dining room is being cleared of the dinner dishes," Alan stated. "On the left off the hallway. We thought you might want to use it to take statements."

"Thanks," the detective replied. "Mrs. Anderson," he commanded gently.

Annie rose to follow the detective; beside her Auggie rose also. The few words that the detective had uttered made the hair on the back of Auggie's neck stand up. There was something about this new person that he instantly disliked. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the vibe he got from him was not good. Over the last several years he'd honed his ability to detect the ways in which a person's tone reflected their intent and this police officer's voice set him off immediately. He searched for the words to explain his gut instinct, none came to mind. Logically, all he knew were two things: this man's voice was unusually rough and reminded him of corrupt cops he had encountered in the past, and it was strange to ask to speak with Annie alone, this was not a necessary move; not at all necessary when all he should be doing was taking a simple statement of the facts. Was this man trying to make her confess to something in private? Auggie secretly wondered what exactly this officer's motive was.

"Where do you think you're going?" Detective Lynch barked at Auggie.

"With my wife," Auggie stated firmly. The dislike for this man just grew. Not just dislike, but distrust now, too.

"I'll get your statement in a little bit," the detective said dismissively.

"She's not talking to you unless I'm with her," Auggie stated again; more firmly this time

"It's okay, Auggie," Anthony said. From the tone of his brother's voice he was in full lawyer mode and just coming into the room from the hallway. "I'll be with her for you."

"And you are?" Detective Lynch asked with more than a bit of hostility.

"Anthony Anderson. I'm a lawyer and her brother-in-law. I'll be sitting in on all statement taking."

"That's not necessary, Tony," Annie quickly said.

"Maybe not, Annie, but it's going to happen. Everyone will have benefit of counsel needed or not. I want to make sure this is done correctly right from the beginning."

"No one is under arrest. I'm just taking statements," the detective seemed to be somewhat taken aback at Anthony's presence and insistence at being present during the interview.

"Doesn't matter what you are doing. This family will have legal representation and advice from here on out," Anthony stated firmly. "I know how you guys work sometimes – making mountains out of molehills. That's not happening here. We're not trying to cover anything up, but I'm not about to let you railroad my sister-in-law either."

"Anthony Anderson," Detective Lynch seemed to say only to himself. "You're not ADA Tony Anderson …?"

"I am. This is our parent's house. We were gathering for a family dinner when this happened."

"Oh. Okay. Mrs. Anderson, shall we proceed?" the detective asked wearily. He seemed to be momentarily defeated.

"It's okay, honey," Annie said to Auggie. "Tony will be there. I'll be okay."

Auggie reached out to reassuringly touch his wife on her left arm. "Tell the truth and then do what Tony says," he said as he sat back down.

Even though he knew that his brother would keep the interview on track, and that Annie was unlikely to say anything that could be misconstrued, Auggie was more than a bit nervous for his wife. He wanted to get up and pace the room, but thought better of it and sat as quietly as he could.

"It's me, Auggie," Alan said as he settled into the seat of a chair to Auggie's left.

"I know," Auggie said somewhat wearily and then gestured in the general direction of the entry, "Alan, tell me what's going on out there. Tell me what you see?"

"Well, right now there's a crime scene investigator taking pictures of the foyer. He's just been joined by another CSI who's got a sketch pad and a laser ruler. She's making a detailed sketch of the location of everything. The first guy has moved off toward the dining room."

"Alan, I want to know what is there, not who is looking at it," Auggie said with some exasperation. "Where are the bodies of the people that Annie shot? I'm assuming they're guys."

"Are you sure you want the details now?"

Firmly nodding his head, Auggie replied, "Yes. I couldn't ask Annie to go over it and I need to know what happened in there."

A shout from Anthony for their eldest doctor brother, Adam, stopped Auggie's further inquiry. His first thought was for Annie. Why would she need medical attention? It had been a good six or seven minutes since she'd been taken to the next room and someone had left the house through the back door and returned. He'd tried to hear what was being said in the dining room, but the voices didn't carry well to other parts of the house from there. He did hear a faint response from Adam.

Anthony's, "Do you or Livvie have a medical bag with you? Annie has a wound that needs to be looked after. Looks like it may need to be stitched up," had Auggie on his feet and taking a few steps toward the hallway. Alan's firm hand on his arm stopped him. His brother's, "She's just got a gash on the palm of her left hand. It's nothing serious. I think she got it when she wrenched the pistol away from the guy with it," reassured Auggie enough that he sat back down.

"Do you still want to know what happened?" Alan asked a few moments later.

"Yes, Alan I still want to know what happened. I wanted to know that a whole four seconds later. So tell me what happened or I'll go over there and look at it the only way I can."

"Okay, but first, the only people badly hurt or killed were the bad guys. Annie has the gash on her hand that she's been ignoring but Adam and Livvie are apparently treating it. The rest of this is just a successful action report. Okay."

"Yes. Thanks. Now what the heck happened?"

"As soon as Jenna had the locks undone this tall, thin guy pushed the door open, spun Jenna around and grabbed her around the neck. He shoved his pistol at her temple, banged it into her head based on the bruise she has forming there, and shouted for her, and I guess you and Annie, too, to get into the next room. I'm pretty sure he didn't see me. He waved the pistol in this general direction. That's when Annie rushed down the stairs and all in one motion it seemed, took the guy's gun from him, inserted herself between him and Jenna, smashed his larynx completely disabling him; pushed Jenna away, and then, before the first guy could fall far enough to be out of their way, she shot the other two with the first one's gun. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it. I didn't see her exact moves, but she put the first guy on the floor before Jenna was out of his grasp. She made a striking snake look like slow motion."

"Where were you standing when all of this was going on?" Auggie didn't mean it but there was almost an accusatory tone to his voice.

"I was behind you. I saw what happened by looking around you. I'd just come into the front hall from the kitchen. It was all over before I could react. Remember I'm not moving too fast right now with this broken ankle but truth be told, even without it I couldn't have gotten there before it was over."

Shifting a bit in his seat Auggie asked, "What were they wearing?"

"They're all pretty much wearing the same thing: dark colored, long sleeved hoodies with the hoods over their heads – much too warm an outfit for this weather – dark jeans, dark high-top athletic shoes, and surgical gloves."

"Were they wearing masks of any sort?"

"No. Nothing on their faces except a bit of facial hair and a mean look."

"They weren't planning on leaving witnesses," Auggie stated. It was clear to him that these men had no intention of leaving witnesses.

"That's my guess," Alan responded. "While I was in the back getting you and Annie the bottles of water, Anthony was saying that the guys that had been doing the home invasions were getting bolder and more violent. I think Annie stopped them here tonight."

"I wouldn't know about that," Auggie admitted modestly. He had no clear indication that these were those men. It was the logical conclusion, but it wasn't the only one that Auggie could come up with. Were these men specifically targeting someone in the house? "But she did stop these guys from killing us all. Where did they land?"

"Why do you want to know? Isn't it enough to know they're dead?"

Auggie shifted his head slightly, almost shaking it, but he did say what he was thinking. His mind was screaming _'Yes, I want to know everything! I can't know if Annie and I are safe without all the information available.'_

He heard his brother sigh in exasperation before he said, "One dropped where he stood in front of the door. The other's in the corner near the door to the Dad's office."

"How many were there total?"

"Three. The first one that Annie got ahold of went to the hospital; plus the two she shot. They had ARs. They had a lot of fire power. Not being in their heads, but it appears to me that they were set on doing some serious damage." Alan paused for a moment and then asked, "How are you doing? If I was you I think I would have been terrified with not knowing exactly what was going on."

Terrified? No. Even though he hadn't known exactly what was going on a few feet in front of him, he had not been terrified. Concerned for his well-being? Yes. Concerned for Annie and Jenna? Yup. He'd heard enough to know, generally, what was happening. The only one that he'd admit the anger that he wasn't in a position to successfully take them down himself would be to himself. How much did he tell Alan and then the rest of the family? "I heard the scuffling when they burst in, sort of figured that someone had taken Jenna hostage. I knew that Annie charged into the fray and knew that she'd give it all she had, leave nothing on the table, but yeah, when the shots went off, I was a bit frightened not knowing who was being shot or if there were going to be more. I heard the bullets hit flesh and what sounded like male responses to being hit, but … I didn't know for sure that Annie was okay for the few moments before she spoke to me. That was rather nerve wracking." That was it in a nutshell.

"But you called it in like you knew that Annie had been triumphant."

"I knew she had been when I didn't take a bullet and the shooting stopped … Alan, if I understand this correctly, the first guy is lucky he wasn't dead too. I've taught her over thirty ways to kill someone with the first blow." As proud of Annie as he was for what she'd ultimately done, he was concerned that she hadn't had the skill to kill the first man with the first or second blow.

"If it's any consolation, he lost interest in anything other than trying to breathe through a severely crushed windpipe after her first blow. He wasn't dead, but he was completely out of the fight in the first two seconds. She did you proud Bro." There was a slight hesitation in the way that Alan began to speak, but his words were strong and indicated pride in his sister-in-law.

"The woman's a warrior Alan. There is no quit in her," Auggie said with pride. That the man was down and out after the second blow reassured him of her ability.

"I know Auggie. I saw the warrior for myself. She needs a 'this side toward enemy' label on her some place."

Despite himself, and his concern for the overall situation, Auggie chuckled a little and said, "The claymore analogy is pretty good now that you mention it." It was a truism. She could be lethal when she needed to be.

He was about to push his brother for more information when he heard Annie talking to Jenna in the hallway. It seemed that Annie was done with her statement and Jenna about to give hers. Jenna seemed to be nervous judging on the timbre of her voice. Moments later Annie plopped herself on the sofa beside her husband, "I've been sampled by the CSI's; it's okay to hold hands now."

There was a hint of pleading in Annie's tone that Auggie picked up quickly. He held out his right hand and Annie placed her left in it. After giving it a quick squeeze, Auggie examined the gauze wound his wife's hand.

"It's nothing, Auggie," Annie said as her husband traced the contour of the bandage covering the palm of her hand.

Without a word of explanation, Alan got up and left the room. When he was out of the room, Auggie asked Annie, "How was it?"

"Was what?" Annie responded.

"The statement taking? Did the detective grill you?"

"No, The crime scene technician came in and took pictures and gathered evidence from my hands and arms, took my shirt – Tony brought in a bag with several shirts that Jessie bought this afternoon so I could change into one – and then the detective just listened and took notes as I told what happened. Anthony recorded it all."

"Here, Annie," Alan said as he came back into the living room, "You're beginning to look like you might need a bucket to puke in. You're starting to look a little green around the gills as they say. I know when that feeling comes you might not be able to get to the bathroom in time."

Auggie was happy that someone was looking out for Annie. He was doing a piss poor job of it this evening. In his defense, Annie wasn't presenting any hard signs of coming down from the adrenaline rush that he was able to tell.

"Thanks. I hope it's just a bit of nausea and I don't need that trash can. But thanks anyway. I haven't had anything to eat in long enough that it might just be the dry heaves if I do," Annie responded weakly.

"You never know," Alan said as he sat the metal container beside Annie's feet. He then moved off and took a seat back on the leather ottoman.

While Auggie remained sitting on the edge of the sofa elbows on his thighs and hands loosely clasped, Annie settled back and placed her hand on Auggie's back. They remained that way for several minutes.

"Stop!" Alan yelled sharply. "Do you have to take that? My brother needs it."

Auggie sat up straight when Alan yelled 'Stop.' The rest of his brother's statement had Auggie quickly concluding that the 'it' in question was his cane. He was the only one in the house that had something that he 'needed'. The cane had been folded up in his hand when he was heading down the hall; he remembered dropping it when he called in to Langley. He hadn't bothered to look for it once the commotion died down. Until this moment, apparently no one else had given it much thought either.

"It's evidence. I have to collect it," a youngish woman said from about where the foyer ended and the front hallway began. Auggie recalled he'd been about there when the doorbell rang. How to play this? Auggie decided to see how it played out between his brother and the young woman.

"The only thing that is evidence of is that my brother is blind and he couldn't find it again once he picked himself up off the floor when the shooting stopped," Alan explained a bit testily. "And that no one thought to pick it up for him in all the commotion afterwards."

"It's okay Alan," Auggie said deciding to butt into the confrontation. Annie had suggested earlier that he might have to play less capable than he was to sell his cover. He'd sound as pathetic as he could comfortably bring himself to act. "If she has to have proof that there was a blind guy here she can take it. I'll make do somehow. But it's not like I carry a spare. Or have one here at Mom's house," Auggie continued in a somewhat whiny tone.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Just means I don't go anywhere outside the house without being led by someone. I guess I can get used to that until we get back to DC and the new cane I keep there," Auggie stated pathetically.

"What are you doing?" asked a male voice Auggie hadn't heard before and seemed to be coming in from outside.

"Bagging evidence," the young woman replied. "It was on the floor in the hallway."

"Does it show in the photos of the scene?"

"Yeah, several times."

"Does it have blood on it, or show signs of being involved in the conflict?"

"Well … no."

"Do you think it belongs to one of the guys that burst in here?"

"Umm … no." Now it was the young woman's turn to sound pathetic.

"Then we don't need it. I think the owner probably needs it more than we do. Who does it belong to?"

"If you're talking about the white cane with the red tip, that would be mine," Auggie stated raising a hand. He was glad the exchange was over; he was almost beginning to feel sorry for the young woman getting dressed down by an obvious superior. And he was glad that he'd be getting his cane back.

"We are," the male voice advised. "Take the man his cane."

Auggie heard what he thought must be the young woman start into the living room and then Alan said, "I'll take it and make sure that my brother gets it."

After a quiet, "Thank you," from Alan the next thing Auggie heard was his brother in front of him gently commanding "Hand." He lifted his right hand from where it lay on his thigh and slightly extended it palm up.

"Here ya go, Bro," Alan said as he gently slapped the cane into the palm of his brother's hand.

Auggie quickly closed his fingers around his cane. "Hello, old friend, glad we could be reunited," he said and grinned slightly. He knew that his wife and brother knew how happy he was to have it back in his hands.

"Nice," Annie whispered. "She bought the whole act and is now looking suitably contrite."

Auggie grinned a bit broader.

A loud, "Whoa, now. This is not what I expected," coming from the area of the front door sobered Auggie and made him sharply turn his head in that direction.

"Well, Tom, what were you expecting?" the voice of the man who'd dressed down a subordinate asked. Auggie guessed the newest male voice was the medical examiner.

"Bob, I was told I had two dead from a home invasion. I was sort of expecting the homeowners to be the victims. Not what appears to be the perps." Apparently the male crime scene investigator's name was Bob, and the new arrival was Tom. Auggie guessed they worked together before.

"Someone fought back."

"That's rather obvious," Tom said as he knelt by the open front door.

Since the conversation in the other room didn't involve anything he was interested in, Auggie quietly asked Annie. "What kind of guns did they have?"

"The pistol was an out-of-the-box Glock 19. Absolutely nothing special about it," Annie answered.

"The other guys were armed with what? ARs you said, Alan?"

"Yeah, just your standard run-of-the-mill AR. One looks just the same as another Nothing to distinguish them from any other AR without getting close enough to read the manufacturer's stamp. They both had thirty shot clips. A lot of firepower – they were planning mayhem."

Auggie closed his eyes and his upper lip twitched slightly. Right now he wanted to strangle his older brother. Alan was holding something back; trying to protect him from something. He had to know what. "Okay, Annie, what's my brother not telling me?"

"What makes you think he's not telling you something, dear?"

"The way he paused, and then kept saying there was nothing distinguishing about the rifles. He saw something that he doesn't want me to know. What is that?" The silence he got was telling. His wife and brother were communicating without saying a word. He hated it when people did that; that it was his wife and brother made it even worse. "Stop it you two. Stop with the non-verbal communication and just tell me. I'll find out sooner or later and it'll be easier on you both if you tell me now. Let me guess – laser sights?" It had to be laser sights. That was the only thing he could come up with that might make the situation worse – they wouldn't have had to actually aim them to be lethal.

"Yes, both ARs had laser sights and they were turned on. I saw that the rifles had them right off, but I didn't know they were turned on until I saw the dots on the baseboard after it was all over," Alan said after another moment's pause.

His brother's admission to the rifles having active laser sights – reluctant as it seemed to be – gave Auggie the chills as he realized how close he came to losing Annie if she hadn't been successful in her attack.

"I didn't see them Auggie. Not during the attack or after. Wouldn't have changed anything if I had. I did exactly what you taught me, get close, get ugly, and take the most damaging blow available with as much force as possible. Just take them down, out, don't worry about style points."

"Annie, you did absolutely exactly what you should have done," Auggie reassured once he got his composure back. Now all he wanted to know was why they had chosen this house. Was it random? Or a calculated attack on someone inside? "I'm just trying to figure out from the evidence what their motives were. Were they after us, were we, you and I, targeted, or was this just some punks out for a thrill killing of some sort? It sounds like they were amateurs-"

"They looked like punk kids to me when I had to walk by them a couple of minutes ago. But we won't have an answer to your concern till the detective has a chance to ID them," Annie replied calmly. "Alan, we always have to understand what or who the target was, or what their motivation was. We need to be able to decide if we were the targets or somebody or something else was," she quickly added.

Alan nodded, "Thanks, I understand the questions now. I just didn't-"

"Mr. Anderson," Sgt. Jamison interrupted with a tone of authority from the entry to the living room, "Detective Lynch wants to take your statement now."

"Which Mr. Anderson?" Auggie asked. "We're all Andersons here."

In the few moments it took for the patrol officer to respond, Auggie knew that the Mr. Anderson in question would be Alan. He'd actually seen something. Detectives didn't hold much store in the statements of ear witnesses. His thoughts were confirmed when the sergeant asked, "Which one of you is Alan?"

"I am," Alan said and took a step toward the officer.

"It's your turn to tell what happened from your perspective," the officer commanded. Auggie heard none of the cockiness that some police officers liked to laud over civilians in cases like this. Of the two Glencoe officers on scene, Sergeant Dave Jamison didn't set any alarm bells off in Auggie's mind.

"This shouldn't take long," Alan remarked. "I'll be back in a few minutes. You two going to be okay while I'm doing this? Annie?"

"I'm just a bit queasy, but I'll be okay. Auggie's here. Now that Auggie has his magnum cane back he can take care of me just fine if I need something." Annie seemed to say that for someone else's benefit; her head was turned more toward the entry than toward either Alan or Auggie.

As soon as Alan left the room, Auggie turned his full attention to Annie. Now that he had a clearer picture of exactly what she'd taken on and done, he was both terrified of what could have happened and proud that she'd stopped it. Alan seemed to be concerned for Annie's well-being; Auggie was, too, but he had to rely more on her physical presentations of distress – physical trembling and subtle changes in her tone of voice – to cue him to her state of being. In past after action reports she'd admitted to all of the classic signs of coming down from an adrenaline surge. So far he'd seen no clear signs of that. That she was able to sit quietly here beside him surprised Auggie the most. That she was calm … well that was a bit of a surprise, too. She should be pacing off the adrenaline that was probably still running rampant in her system. He knew it took a while for it to completely dissipate. He'd felt her tremble a few times, but he wasn't sure, at the time, what that had been from.

"Annie," Auggie said seriously, "how are you doing? Really."

"Now that I've given my statement to the detective, I'm starting to come down a bit, I think. I'm still so scared and nervous. This is a whole new ballgame for me – having to stick around and accept the consequences of my actions. That's scary. And then there's your family. There's two dead bodies in their home because of me. How are they going to view me now?"

Auggie wanted to tell his wife that everything would be okay with the family, but he also couldn't be certain of that. One never knew how others were going to react to something like what had happened in their home and presence. Alan had already demonstrated his support; in a way so had Anthony, but Auggie wasn't fully sure of his motivation. Was he actually concerned for Annie? Or was he on another mission – a more personal one? Anthony was very protective of the family name. Of the others Auggie wasn't sure; he felt that the men might be the most understanding. He also thought that the women, unaccustomed to violence in any form, might not understand, might now be leery of Annie. He was most concerned about his mother's reaction. Abigail Anderson had a strong personality and a confident psyche, but he had no idea how she'd react to having two men killed in her house even though they had come to harm her family. He couldn't lie to his wife and told her, "Annie, I have no idea how anyone is going to react to all of this. To you. I think they'll be supportive, but I can't be certain of that."

"At least you're not giving me platitudes and telling me everything will be all right. Thank you," Annie said and cuddled a bit into his side. Raised voices from the dining room made Annie sit up straight, and Auggie to cock his head. He didn't like the few words he could catch nor the tone of his brothers' voices.

A pleasant female voice from the area of the front door said loudly, "Hello the house, I'm Special Agent Devlin Parker from the Chicago FBI office. I have a court order here I'm going to serve on all present. Who is in charge of this scene?" That seemed to stop the argument from the next room.

From the dining room Auggie heard the detective in charge reply, "I am. Detective Scott Lynch, Glencoe Police Department. Why are you here and what business is this of the FBI?"

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><p><strong>What do you think is going to happen next? Alan is up next and then ...<strong>

**It's written and I'll post next week. **


	7. Alan's interrogation

**Here's the next section - Alan's take on the situation.**

**Again, others have had a part in getting this to a passable condition - fbobs and Mandy58 know how much I appreciate their input and corrections. **

**I have no association with the USANetwork's Covert Affairs. I just like to imagine those characters in another place and time.**

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><p>Alan Anderson<p>

Even though he probably should have been, Alan was not at all surprised at Austin's irrational outburst. Even though his younger brother was normally level-headed, there were those times when he could go off on a half-cocked tangent. That it was over an incident that could have seriously injured or killed his wife was not surprising. Austin, like Anderson men were inclined to do, was deeply in love with his wife and anything that might hurt her, or worse, was bound to set him off. He seemed to calm down easily this time, but Alan still wondered how he would act the first time he saw Annie; or Auggie for that matter. That, however, was a concern for later. Everything in it's time. Now was not the time. There is a time and place for everything. He didn't have the time, or the inclination, to worry about that now. Making sure that his brother's and sister-in-law's true status were safeguarded was his first priority. Alan counted on Tony to make sure the facts stayed straight. It was a duty he did not take lightly; but he also wondered if that would be possible given the circumstances.

Closing the door hadn't been possible with where the bodies lay, but he had managed to get Annie and Auggie to move off the stairs and into the living room. There they were sheltered from the prying eyes of the voyeurs on the street outside. All he could do now was hope that no one had snapped a picture with a cell phone camera before he'd gotten them to move. There wasn't a thing that he could do about that though, but at least his brother and sister-in-law were now somewhat protected. Once he'd gotten them settled onto the sofa in the formal living room, Alan resumed his seat on the ottoman just inside the living room doorway. The proximity to the dead bodies only slightly bothered him. He was oh so glad that it was the intruders lying there dead and not his brother or either of his sisters-in-law; or, for that matter, anyone else in his family.

What he'd seen Annie do in that brief slice of time kept playing back in his head like an impossible dream. He'd seen it, but he still couldn't quite believe what he'd seen. That his petite sister-in-law had whatever it took to make a split second decision to put her life on the line, rush three armed men and take them out still boggled his mind. Annie was, from what he'd seen of her, far from a fool. It had to have been guts – courage – that drove her to do that. Or it could have been basic primal survivor instinct. Whatever it was she had it and used it to her advantage.

He thought back to something she'd said just a few minutes ago, something that he'd taken at the time as an apology for her actions, but which now had him wondering. She'd said, 'I have no idea what possessed me ….' Now he thought he knew what she meant. _She wasn't apologizing; she was literally trying to understand her motivations – what had possessed her – to do what she had done; much like he was trying to understand them now. She was wondering what it took too. _

He hadn't exactly seen it before but he'd heard of men, and women, who had what was called the 'Warrior Personality'. Their built in response was to go head on at the threat and take it out; nothing left on the table; all in, win or die. That was clearly what he had seen Annie do. She didn't blink; she just went for it with everything she had. Five, maybe ten, seconds from start to finish. If Annie was active duty military her actions would put her in line for at least a Bronze, if not a Silver, Star. If he had the power to do so he'd give her a Congressional Medal of Honor. But, he figured Annie would be embarrassed by any fuss over her and would claim that she didn't deserve the accolades.

It came as a bit of a shock to him but suddenly he realized she thought this was normal, what anybody would have done in her place. She had the gift of Valor and to her it was as normal as breathing. He'd have to make sure that the rest of the family kept their praise for Annie's actions to a minimum. She'd need to know that they were thankful, that they appreciated what she did, and that they loved her, but anything more than that might be too much for her to handle.

Glancing back over his shoulder at his sister-in-law calmly sitting on the sofa beside her husband, Alan wondered how she could be so calm given the amount of adrenaline that must still be coursing through her system with so little physical action to burn it off. Coming down from that kind of rush wasn't going to be pretty he knew. And he knew that his brother was well aware of that, too. As Alan began to rise from his seat to go find her something to vomit into when the need arose, the uniformed patrol officer came back in through the open door. The man he now knew to be Sergeant Jamison preceded an older man in a white jumpsuit, white paper booties over his shoes, and wearing a pair of surgical gloves similar to the ones the dead punks had on their hands.

After watching the older man work for a few minutes, Alan concluded that he was a crime scene investigator; a criminalist. He scooted the ottoman back from its position straddling the transition between the slate tiles of the foyer and the plush carpet in the living room to give the CSI more room to work. The older man had barely gotten started identifying and photographing the items on the floor in the foyer – the bodies, the spent casings of the bullets Annie had fired, and even Auggie's cane – when another man entered. Barely acknowledging Alan's presence, Sgt. Jamison ushered the other man into the living room and introduced him to Annie as 'Detective Lynch.'

After a bit of resistance from Auggie, only resolved when Anthony had come into the living room and intervened. Anthony had unequivocally stated that he'd be offering legal counsel to Annie, and the rest of the household interviewed. The detective had taken Annie into the dining room to take her statement. Once Annie had left the room, Alan took a seat in one of the side chairs near his brother.

"It's me, Auggie," Alan said as he settled into the seat of the chair set at a right angle to the sofa his brother was sitting on.

"I know," Auggie said somewhat wearily. "Alan, tell me what's going on out there." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the foyer. "Tell me what you see?"

"Well, right now there's a crime scene investigator taking pictures of the foyer. He's just been joined by anther CSI who's got a sketch pad and a laser ruler. She's making a detailed sketch of the location of everything. The first guy has moved off toward the dining room."

"Alan, I want to know what is there, not who is looking at it," Auggie said with some exasperation. "Where are the bodies of the people that Annie shot? I'm assuming they're guys."

"Are you sure you want the details now?"

Firmly nodding his head, Auggie replied, "Yes. I couldn't ask Annie to go over it and I need to know what happened in there."

Anthony's shout for Adam interrupted Alan's train of thought. Moments later, after he'd heard that Annie was injured, Auggie began to get up from the sofa. Alan put a hand on his brother's arm, "She's just got a gash on the palm of her left hand. It's nothing serious. I think she got it when she wrenched the pistol away from the guy with it."

Auggie, visibly relieved at Alan's explanation, sat back down.

"Do you still want to know what happened?" Alan asked after his brother calmed himself.

"Yes, Alan I still want to know what happened a whole four seconds later. So tell me what happened or I'll go over there and look at it the only way I can."

_Resistance is futile,_ Alan thought to himself. Lowering his voice so that only his brother could hear, Alan recounted what he'd seen. "Okay, but first, the only people badly hurt or killed were the bad guys. Annie has the gash on her hand that she's been ignoring but Adam and Livvie are apparently treating it. The rest of this is just a successful action report. Okay."

"Yes. Thanks. Now what the heck happened?"

"As soon as Jenna had the locks undone this tall, thin guy pushed the door open, spun Jenna around and grabbed her around the neck. He shoved his pistol at her temple – banged it into her head based on the bruise she has forming there – and shouted for her, and I guess you and Annie, too, to get into the next room. I'm pretty sure he didn't see me. He waved the pistol in this general direction. That's when Annie rushed down the stairs and all in one motion it seemed, took the guy's gun from him, inserted herself between him and Jenna, smashed his larynx completely disabling him; pushed Jenna away, and then, before the first guy could fall far enough to be out of their way, she shot the other two with the first one's gun. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it. I didn't see her exact moves, but she put the first guy on the floor before Jenna was out of his grasp. She made a striking snake look like slow motion."

"Where were you standing when all of this was going on?" There was almost an accusatory tone to Auggie's voice.

"I was behind you. I saw what happened by looking around you. I'd just come into the front hall from the kitchen. It was all over before I could react. Remember I'm not moving too fast right now with this broken ankle but truth be told, even without it I couldn't have gotten there before it was over."

Shifting a bit in his seat Auggie asked, "What were they wearing?"

"They're all pretty much wearing the same thing: dark colored, long sleeved hoodies with the hoods over their heads – much too warm an outfit for this weather – dark jeans, dark high-top athletic shoes, and surgical gloves."

"Were they wearing masks of any sort?"

"No. Nothing on their faces except a bit of facial hair and a mean look."

"They weren't planning on leaving witnesses," Auggie stated with apparently clear comprehension of the situation.

"That's my guess," Alan responded. "While I was in the back getting you and Annie the bottles of water, Anthony was saying that the guys that had been doing the home invasions were getting bolder and more violent. I think Annie stopped them here tonight."

"I wouldn't know about that," Auggie admitted modestly. "But she did stop these guys from killing us all. Where did they land?"

"Why do you want to know? Isn't it enough to know they're dead?"

Slightly, almost unperceptively, Auggie shook his head, but didn't say a word.

Alan sighed slightly in exasperation. "One dropped where he stood in front of the door. The other's in the corner near the door to the Dad's office."

"How many were there total?"

"Just three. The first one that Annie got ahold of went to the hospital; plus the two she shot. They had ARs. They had a lot of firepower. Not being in their heads, but it appears to me that they were set on doing some serious damage." Alan paused for a moment and then asked, "How are you doing? If I was you I think I would have been terrified with not knowing exactly what was going on."

Auggie looked thoughtful for a few moments then said, "I heard the scuffling when they burst in, sort of figured that someone had taken Jenna hostage. I knew that Annie charged into the fray and knew that she'd give it all she had, leave nothing on the table; but yeah, when the shots went off, I was a bit frightened not knowing who was being shot or if there were going to be more. I heard the bullets hit flesh and what sounded like male responses to being hit, but … I didn't know for sure that Annie was okay for the few moments before she spoke to me. That was rather nerve wracking."

"But you called it in like you knew that Annie had been triumphant."

"I knew she had been when I didn't take a bullet and the shooting stopped … Alan, if I understand this correctly, the first guy is lucky he wasn't dead too. I've taught her over thirty ways to kill someone with the first blow."

Alan nodded, "If it's any consolation, he lost interest in anything other than trying to breathe through a severely crushed windpipe after her first blow. He wasn't dead, but he was completely out of the fight in the first two seconds. She did you proud, Bro."

"The woman's a warrior Alan. There is no quit in her."

"I know Auggie. I saw the warrior for myself. She needs a 'this side toward enemy' label on her some place," Alan said trying to lighten the conversation at least a little; he could see that Auggie was still pretty tense.

It apparently worked because Auggie chuckled a little and said, "The claymore analogy is pretty good now that you mention it."

Before either could comment further the woman in question could be heard talking to Jenna in the hallway. Moments later she was taking a seat beside her husband. She reached out, took his hand and said, "I've been sampled by the CSI's, it's okay to hold hands now." Alan saw Auggie give her a squeeze back and then examine the bandage on her left hand.

"It's nothing, Auggie," Annie said as her husband traced the contour of the bandage covering the palm of her hand.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Annie insisted.

Alan studied his brother's wife carefully. He was beginning to worry about her. And, if he judged the look on his brother's face, so was Auggie; and about more than just the cut on his wife's hand. When Annie was around, Auggie wore his feelings for her pretty much on his sleeve for all to see. He wondered if his brother knew that he'd lost his ability to hide his emotions as he'd need to do if he'd ever be allowed back into the field. Or, Alan considered, was it just when Annie was around that he had that trouble?

Glancing over at Annie again, deciding she looked really pale, Alan got up and hurried into the downstairs bathroom to retrieve the wastepaper can from there for Annie to use if she vomited. Even though she appeared to be trying to disguise it, Annie was finally beginning to come down off the adrenaline high he knew that she'd been on to do what she'd done earlier. When she'd walked back into the living room her gait had been noticeably unsteady. Not unsteady enough that she needed support, but there had been a bit of wobbly knees before she sank onto the sofa beside Auggie.

As he'd hustled down the hallway toward the back, Alan noticed that the female CSI was beginning to collect the shell casings into evidence bags. On his way back with the wastepaper can for Annie, he saw what he took to be the Medical Examiner's van pull up across the street and blocking his view of the gathering crowd.

"Here, Annie," Alan said as he came back into the living room, "You're beginning to look like you might need a bucket to puke in. You're starting to look a little green around the gills as they say. I know when that feeling comes you might not be able to get to the bathroom in time."

Smiling weakly, Annie replied, "Thanks. I hope it's just a bit of nausea and I don't need that trash can. But thanks anyway. I haven't had anything to eat in long enough that it might just be the dry heaves if I do."

"You never know," Alan said as he sat it beside Annie's feet.

Taking a seat back on the ottoman where he could watch what was going on with the CSIs, and to give Annie and Auggie a little bit of privacy, Alan dispassionately watched the female CSI pick up the last of the shell casings and then move on to the ARs. She placed the rifles into brown cardboard boxes, carefully labeling each with the date, time, and case name and number. Or that's what he thought she was writing on the white paper labels on the top of the boxes. Once she'd 'bagged and tagged' each and handed them off to the older gentleman, she took a few steps down the hallway and began to pick up Auggie's cane from where he'd dropped it earlier.

"Stop," Alan yelled sharply. "Do you have to take that? My brother needs it."

The woman immediately responded by standing up, with Auggie's cane in one hand and the evidence bag in the other, and taking several steps toward Alan. "It's evidence. I have to collect it."

"The only thing that is evidence of is that my brother is blind and he couldn't find it again once he picked himself up off the floor when the shooting stopped," Alan explained a bit testily. "And that no one thought to pick it up for him in all the commotion afterwards."

"It's okay Alan," Auggie said from where he still sat on the sofa. "If she has to have proof that there was a blind guy here she can take it. I'll make do somehow. But it's not like I carry a spare. Or have one here at Mom's house," Auggie continued in a somewhat whiny tone.

Alan stifled the urge to smile at his brother's performance of a pathetic blind man. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" Alan asked turning slightly on the ottoman so he could look at Auggie and play along with his brother's act. He knew it was a calculated act; the brother he'd come to know since he'd gone blind would not act this way.

"Just means I don't go anywhere outside the house without being led by someone. I guess I can get used to that until we get back to DC and the new cane I keep there," Auggie stated pathetically.

The female CSI seemed to be sympathetic, but began to bag the cane anyway.

"What are you doing?" the lead CSI asked as he came in the front door from outside.

"Bagging evidence," she admitted reluctantly. "It was on the floor in the hallway."

"Does it show in the photos of the scene?"

"Yeah, several times."

"Does it have blood on it, or show signs of being involved in the conflict?"

"Well … no," she said studying it.

"Do you think it belongs to one of the guys that burst in here?"

"Umm … no," she said looking from the cane in her hand to the bodies still on the floor.

"Then we don't need it. I think the owner probably needs it more than we do. Who does it belong to?"

"If you're talking about the bundle of carbon fiber sections of white cane with a red tip, that would be mine," Auggie stated raising a hand over his head like a schoolboy.

"We are," the lead criminalist advised. "Take the man his cane," he encouraged his assistant.

The young woman started into the living room but Alan stopped her by saying, "I'll take it and make sure that my brother gets it," and holding out his hand.

After glancing at her boss who nodded his consent, the female criminalist handed Auggie's cane to Alan. "Thank you," he said quietly. As the young woman returned to stand beside her boss, Alan got up from his seat and crossed to stand before his youngest brother. "Hand," he commanded gently.

Auggie lifted his right hand from where it lay on his thigh and slightly extended it palm up.

"Here ya go, Bro," Alan said as he lightly slapped the cane into the palm of his brother's hand.

Auggie quickly closed his fingers around his cane. "Hello, old friend, glad we could be reunited," he said and grinned slightly.

"Nice," Annie whispered. "She bought the whole act and is now looking suitably contrite."

Auggie grinned a bit broader.

A loud, "Whoa, now. This is not what I expected," coming from the area of the front door stopped the trio's bit of light-heartedness.

Alan and Annie looked toward the front door. A tall, broad-shouldered, older man tried to fill the opening.

"Well, Tom, what were you expecting?" the lead criminalist asked.

"Bob, I was told I had two dead from a home invasion. I was sort of expecting the homeowners to be the victims. Not what appears to be the perps."

"Someone fought back."

"That's rather obvious," the medical examiner said as he knelt beside the body in front of the door.

As the ME began his examination of the first body, Auggie quietly asked Annie. "What kind of guns did they have?"

"The pistol was an out-of-the-box Glock 19. Absolutely nothing special about it," Annie answered.

"The other guys were armed with what? ARs you said, Alan?"

"Yeah, just your standard run-of-the-mill AR. One looks just the same as another. Nothing to distinguish them from any other AR without getting close enough to read the manufacturer's stamp. They both had thirty shot clips. A lot of firepower – they were planning mayhem." There was something significant about the rifles the punks had, but Alan didn't know if he wanted his brother to know that they both had laser sights and they were turned on. If even one of them had gotten his rifle up he could have easily blown Annie, and anyone else in his path, away with ease.

Auggie closed his eyes and his upper lip twitched slightly. "Okay, Annie, what's my brother not telling me?"

"What makes you think he's not telling you something, dear?"

"The way he paused, and then kept saying there was nothing distinguishing about the rifles. He saw something that he doesn't want me to know. What is that?"

Annie looked questioningly at Alan. He simply shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"Stop it you two. Stop with the non-verbal communication and just tell me. I'll find out sooner or later and it'll be easier on you both if you tell me now. Let me guess – laser sights?"

"Yes, both ARs had laser sights and they were turned on. I saw that the rifles had them right off, but I didn't know they were turned on until I saw the dots on the baseboard after it was all over," Alan said with great reluctance. His brother's hands began to tremble slightly when he heard that the sights were active; that small fact made the invaders ability to be lethal even easier – just raise the rifle to even waist height and move it until the red dot was in the center of mass on a body and pull the trigger; there was no need to raise it to shoulder height and visually aim.

Annie said, "I didn't see them Auggie. Not during the attack or after. Wouldn't have changed anything if I had. I did exactly what you taught me, get close, get ugly, and take the most damaging blow available with as much force as possible. Just take them down, out, don't worry about style points."

"Annie, you did absolutely exactly what you should have done. I'm just trying to figure out from the evidence what their motives were. Were they after us, were we, you and I, targeted, or was this just some punks out for a thrill killing of some sort? It sounds like they were amateurs-"

"They looked like punk kids to me when I had to walk by them a couple of minutes ago. But we won't have an answer to your concern till the detective has a chance to ID them," Annie replied calmly. Then she added, "Alan, we always have to understand what or who the target was, or what their motivation was. We need to be able to decide if we were the targets or somebody or something else was." Alan nodded, "Thanks, I understand the questions now. I just didn't-"

"Mr. Anderson," Sgt. Jamison interrupted with a tone of command from the entry to the living room, "Detective Lynch wants to take your statement now."

"Which Mr. Anderson?" Auggie asked. "We're all Andersons here."

Sgt. Jamison looked strangely at the two men for a moment and pulled a small note pad out of the breast pocket of his uniform. He leafed through a few pages and then asked, "Which one of you is Alan?"

"I am," Alan said and took a step toward the officer.

"It's your turn to tell what happened from your perspective," the sergeant said authoritatively as he gestured toward the hallway and moved to make room for Alan to pass by him.

"This shouldn't take long," Alan remarked to Auggie and Annie. "I'll be back in a few minutes. You two going to be okay while I'm doing this? Annie?"

"I'm just a bit queasy, but I'll be okay. Auggie's here." She glanced toward the foyer and the activity there – both of the CSIs were just standing there observing the medical examiner – and commented, "Now that Auggie has his magnum cane back he can take care of me just fine if I need something."

Alan stifled yet another smile at his brother's wife's comments as he followed the patrol officer into the dining room. Once there he took a seat beside his brother Anthony, a seat that he knew had been recently vacated by another family member – Jenna since she'd been sitting there when he went to get the trashcan for Annie.

"Tony," he acknowledged his brother with a nod of his head. "Your recorder or theirs?" he asked and gestured toward the digital voice recorder in the middle of the table.

"Mine. They're just taking notes right now. I'm not going to let them misremember anything," Anthony remarked. "And it's recording now, so we need to get on with it. Just tell the truth."

"Please state your name for the record," Detective Lynch began as soon as Officer Jamison was seated beside him.

"Master Gunnery Sergeant Alan James Anderson, US Marine Corps," Alan declared proudly. Usually he just said Sergeant Anderson. Most civilians weren't impressed with the fact that he'd risen to the top of his classification. But now he didn't want anyone to comeback on him for not fully disclosing anything. Even something as minor as his full rank. He stopped short of giving his ID number.

"What's your normal duty station?"

"Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, North Carolina."

"What brought you to be here this evening?"

"As you've undoubtedly noticed, I'm in a walking cast. I broke my ankle a few weeks ago and have been on medical leave. I took the time to come home for a family holiday. I arrived yesterday and will be heading back to Lejeune on Friday."

"What's your relationship to Anne Anderson?"

"She's my newest sister-in-law. Recently married my youngest brother, August."

"Where were you when this alleged home invasion began?"

_Alleged? Nothing alleged about it,_ Alan thought and bristled. His hesitation made Anthony touch his arm lightly.

"Where were you, Alan?" Anthony gently encouraged.

"I was here in the hallway, just coming out of the kitchen."

"How far is that from the front door where the incident allegedly took place?"

"About 25 feet but we could measure it to be sure."

"That won't be necessary. What's your visual acuity?"

"You asked how far it is, do you actually care, or are you just trolling for inconsistencies? I can stand where I was and you can measure it."

"Your estimate is fine; it looks like about 25 feet to me too. We have to ask things like this to get things in the context of the moment. Like, for example, I need to know if you can see that far. Everything gets challenged in court, so I need to ask a lot of what may seem like obvious questions to you in order to have the facts necessary to paint the full picture for the court. So, please tell me your visual acuity if you know it."

"Huh? Okay. Last time it was checked – about six months ago – it was 20/15. Meaning that I can see at 20 feet what most people can see at 15."

"Is that actual? Or corrected? I see you don't wear glasses, do you wear contact lenses?"

"That's actual. Except for my youngest brother who lost his sight in Iraq, and had perfect vision before that, we Andersons are blessed with good eyes."

"Okay, we've got it established that you have good enough vision to see what you are about to tell us. Now tell us what you saw at the front door."

"I saw my brother August – we call him Auggie – in the hallway almost to the front foyer when the doorbell rang. He said he'd get the door, and then another sister-in-law, Jenna, you have interviewed her, said that she'd get the door. She was on the stairs; I think she was coming down from upstairs anyway, but she came the rest of the way down and went to the door." Alan paused seeing it all again in his mind's eye, this time feeling a little of the fright he hadn't had time to feel the first time when he actually witnessed it.

The detective saw his expression and cued him again. "What happened next?"

"As soon as Jenna had the last lock undone the door burst open, and a youngish man in a black hoodie, with the hood up, pushed his way into the house and grabbed Jenna around the neck … somewhere in there she had gotten spun around so he had his arm pressing on the front of her throat … he slammed a semi-automatic pistol to her temple." Alan paused again, saw the Detective getting ready to prompt him and said, "Just let me get this straight, okay? A lot of shit when down in less than the time it takes for a fast sneeze. I've been in combat, I know I was in sensory overload when it happened, but if you will just be patient I'll get it all out."

The Detective growled, "We don't have all night."

Alan replied, "Then call someone who does. If you are going to get a statement from me, it's going to be right, not rushed into ambiguity or error by your lack of time."

Anthony said, "Detective, he has a point. You want his statement, he gives it his way. We good?"

"Yeah, we're good," the Detective said with resignation.

Alan backed up in his narrative to add, "When Jenna said she'd get the door, Auggie stopped where he was in the hallway so he partially blocked my view of what happened next."

Alan rewatched the next few seconds in his head and tried to replay them in his narration, "The first guy was followed by two more dressed in dark hoodies with the hoods up. When the first guy started waving the gun around Annie came rushing in from the left, I assume she'd been on the stairs, too, because that was the direction she came from. Anyway, she slammed her body into the first guy freeing Jenna, and at the same time she somehow – I need to ask her how – she managed to stop the guy's gun from shooting her, took it away from him, and smashed his windpipe with it." Alan paused again and then said, "After that she smashed his larynx again with her right elbow, and then transferred the gun from her left hand to her right hand. By then Jenna was moving toward Auggie but was still pretty close to the action, maybe a short step."

Alan felt the need to take a deep breath, and then he continued with the next few words sort of hurried saying, "That was when I heard four shots and was aware the first guy had fallen halfway to the floor and saw some blood splattering out of the other guys back at Annie and Jenna." Alan paused again recalling what happened next.

The Detective started to look agitated again, Alan answered that look asking, "When was the last time you saw close combat between a woman and three men that lasted five seconds ending with the woman winning? Could you describe it in accurate detail in a simple declarative sentence?"

Alan regretted his outburst and felt Anthony put his hand on his arm gently to calm him down. Anthony said, "You are doing fine Bro. Just take your time and get it right."

Alan was extremely grateful for his brother's presence at that moment. He said, "The timing is important. Jenna ran past Auggie and then me in the hallway as she ran out of the foyer. All of the shots had been fired before she got to me."

Then he added, "Annie shot the second two guys with the gun she took from the first one. They had long guns, AR's, and were temporarily pinned behind the first guy because Annie slammed him back toward them – they couldn't bring their guns to point in our direction because they were pinned by the guy in front of them.

"It all happened so quickly I didn't see her exact moves, but my sister-in-law took all three of them down in just a few seconds. Telling you about it is like trying to give a detailed description of a snake strike. When the first shot was fired my brother, Auggie, hit the floor and dropped his cane. I took one look at what was happening up front, it was over by the time my look was finished, and hurried as fast as I could to see if more were at the back door or on the deck waiting to come in that way. There weren't any more of them. Then I corralled the rest of the family in the family room. They've pretty much been there since. That was a little more than just what I saw, but I thought it pertinent."

"Do you think she intended to kill these men?" the Detective asked.

Alan stood up and said, "Do I think she what? No, I think she just wanted to stop them from doing whatever they intended to do here. Oh, and we're done here. I told you what I saw and heard in good faith. Now you are asking leading questions trying to put words into our mouths and I'm not having any of it. I'm done talking to you."

The Detective said, "You are obstructing an investigation-"

Anthony said with an edge to his voice, "Detective, no, he isn't. You know that. I know you know that, which tells me you may have an agenda other than the honest resolution of this issue which is straight up self-defense." The Detective opened his mouth, presumably to object but got nowhere as Anthony continued, "I can play this tape in front of any judge in the land and get a ruling supporting self-defense in a heartbeat. I agree with Alan, your interview has turned into what is beginning to look like a witch hunt. Unless you have real questions, not leading questions, we are done here and you can leave with no further contact with the family. Ever. Beginning right now. Is that what you want, because I can make that stick?"

Just then a female voice was heard saying pleasantly but with enough volume to be heard throughout the house, "Hello the house, I'm Special Agent Devlin Parker from the Chicago FBI office. I have a court order here I'm going to serve on all present. Who is in charge of this scene?"

Detective Lynch rose, looked toward the foyer and said, "I am. Detective Scott Lynch, Glencoe Police Department. Why are you here and what business is this of the FBI?"

Agent Parker, taking a few steps into the house said, "You have been told to expect me. We will continue this discussion in a moment Detective. Now that I've met you, I'd like to be introduced to the rest of the people here, starting with the people in the other room on the couch who I presume are August and Anne Anderson."

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><p><strong>I've been getting a decent number of traffic, so I know that you are still reading even though not many are commenting. That's okay. I write for my own pleasure and share because I can. The next part gets to the rest of the family's reaction again. It's written and edited so no one can influence me, but how do you think they're going to react? Has Austin come around?<strong>


	8. Annie Meets the Family Again

**Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday, but really got sidetracked.**

**Once again I have to admit that I've had a lot of help with this chapter. Thanks for the help Mandy58 and fbobs.**

**I have no affiliation with the USANetworks Covert Affairs. I just like to take their characters out of the box and imagine them in different situations.**

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><p>Auggie sat up listening; Annie listened and heard what he must have heard, a car pulling up outside on the street where it almost had to be inside the crime scene tape that had been erected to keep people out. A few seconds later a car door slammed and whoever it was could be heard walking up the sidewalk to the front door, and then a woman stepped in through the door announcing, "Hello the house. I'm Special Agent Devlin Parker from the Chicago FBI office. I have a court order here I'm going to serve on all present. Who is currently the officer in charge of this scene?"<p>

From the area of the dining room, Annie heard the detective in charge respond, "I am – Detective Scott Lynch, Glencoe Police Department. Why are the FBI here and what business is this of the FBI?"

Parker said with pleasant confidence as she worked her way past the bodies and the Medical Examiner in the foyer and toward the hallway, "I know you have been told to expect me Detective. I have a copy of the recorded call from the Chief's Office and the dispatch tapes that relayed it. We will continue this discussion in a moment Detective. Now that I've had the pleasure of meeting you, I'd like to be introduced to the rest of the people here, starting with the people in the other room on the couch who I presume are August and Anne Anderson." She added, as she turned and walked back toward them, "Am I right?"

Annie looked carefully at the new person and saw a quietly confident, professionally dressed woman. She was, so far, charming. The female FBI agent was pleasantly attractive but not what most would call pretty – plain would be a good description. As she approached Annie and Auggie, she carried herself well. Annie rose to meet this slightly older woman saying, "You are correct, I'm Anne Anderson. This," she added pointing to the rising Auggie, "Is my husband August. Please call us Annie and Auggie."

"Special Agent Devlin Parker; pleased to meet the both of you. If you give me a moment to get things organized, I'd like to have a private talk with the two of you before things go much further. Sorry to be so long getting here but you will understand the reasons shortly."

Annie said, "No problem. We heard the FBI would be arriving. We can close that sliding door in the wall and talk in relative privacy. Especially if you ask Tony, Auggie's brother who is a Chicago ADA but representing us at the moment, to keep people away from the door."

Auggie nodded and said, "That's as good a scheme as any given where the rest of the family is located."

Agent Parker said and winked conspiratorially at Annie, "Works for me. I'll be back in a minute or two."

Annie, curious, followed her far enough to be able to see and hear what transpired next.

Exiting the room Agent Parker walked into the dining room where everybody but Alan and the Detective were still sitting and said, "I've already had the pleasure of meeting Detective Lynch, Now would the rest of you please introduce yourselves starting with you sir?" she finished pointing at Alan.

Alan stood up even straighter, if that was possible and said, "Master Gunnery Sergeant Alan James Anderson, US Marine Corps." That was the first time Annie had heard her brother-in-law rattle off his full rank to anyone other than another member of the military. Usually he was just Sergeant Anderson. Or Gunny.

Agent Parker smiled with genuine appreciation and said, "Thank you for your service Gunny."

Alan slightly nodded his head at the acknowledgement.

She looked at Tony who said, "Anthony Anderson, ADA, Chicago, representing the Anderson family as counsel during any and all interviews."

She nodded and said, "We've been in the same room before, but you would not have had occasion to remember me. I remember you because you were busy winning an argument with my boss at the time. Such is life."

Tony grinned and then asked pointedly, "The argument had something to do with an intimidation case being perused against the Glencoe Police Department perhaps?"

"Yes, it did in fact," she replied looking directly at Detective Lynch. Devlin Parker was not smiling.

Her point apparently made, she looked at Sergeant Jamison and he said, "Sergeant David Jamison, Glencoe PD patrol."

"Thanks gentlemen. If you would wait here, I'm going to have a word with Anne and August Anderson, and then I'll be back." After Agent Parker had met the men in the dining room, she turned and headed back to the living room meeting Annie standing in the door. She nodded to Annie as if she understood Annie's curiosity and said, "If you pull that side, I'll pull this one and we should be able to get them to meet in the middle, ya think?"

"I think," said Annie and grinned.

When the glass and rubbed oak pocket doors were closed Agent Parker pulled a chair over so she could sit facing Annie and Auggie who had already sat back down. Parker started the conversation saying, "I am Special Agent Devlin Parker as you no doubt heard. I was sent here after a conversation instigated by a Supervisory Special Agent Vincent Rossabi of the DC office. My specific mission is to protect your covert status as CIA officers, keep you out of the paper, the broadcast and internet media, and generally to make sure you are ghosts. I have federal gag order here," she said reaching into her suit coat pocket and retrieving some folded papers, "authored by a Deputy Attorney General and signed by a Federal Judge. Once I've served this on them, any leaks are federal crimes. The Glencoe Police chief has already been served which in theory covers all who work for him, but I will be passing copies of it out to all who were onsite or on the radio related to this event including the nine-one-one dispatchers."

Annie sighed in relief. Much of the remaining tension in Auggie's face instantly disappeared also. Even though she probably should not have been given their history, that SSA Rossabi had a hand in sending this particular Special Agent somewhat surprised her. Even though he could be a bureaucratic jackass at times, he'd had her back a couple of times also.

Agent Parker continued, "I need your stories but I'm pretty sure they have been recorded in detail by now, and I can listen to them later. Annie, I am told you are the actor who defended the household. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Would you give me the short version of what happened?"

"Yes." Once again Annie told her story in accurate but condensed form.

Agent Parker took no notes but nodded at key points. When Annie had finished she said, "That's one of the clearest cases of self-defense I've ever heard. Are you getting any grief from the Detective in there?"

Annie said, "Not so far, but we've been catching bits of conversation that tell me you might want to be sure and get a copy of the digital recording my brother-in-law made. Short version, the Detective seems to possibly have an agenda other than straightforward reporting of facts."

Agent Parker didn't look surprised. She looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "No problem. I got this. Shall we join the others?

Annie and Auggie answered, "Sure."

And then Auggie added, "We'd love to be done with this, at least for this evening."

The pair then followed Agent Parker to the next room. Even though he was in a familiar place, Auggie latched on to Annie's elbow.

When they got to the dining room, everybody was seated but there didn't appear to have been much conversation. Annie could feel that the atmosphere was strained. The trained spy read facial expressions and body language and almost instantly pinpointed Alan and Tony on one side of the disagreement, Detective Lynch on the other side, but at that point she had no clear understanding of what the disagreement was about. She had a guess, but it was just a speculation at this point.

Apparently Agent Parker was also very good at reading people because she said, "Gentlemen, the tone of the voices I heard, and the volume, as I approached the front door suggested a disagreement was in process. What was that about? Anthony?"

"The witness, Alan Anderson, was answering direct questions in good faith. The Detective changed to asking leading questions. Alan refused to answer them, the Detective threatened an obstruction charge-"

"If the recording shows good faith statements, that wouldn't stick," Agent Parker said.

"I told the Detective that and said if he continued asking leading questions, the interview was over. At that moment you announced yourself."

"Thanks that was concise and abundantly clear. What did he ask?"

"Do you think she intended to kill the intruders?" Tony answered.

Agent Parker was clearly surprised by the question and said, "Detective, why on earth would you ask that question? You have exactly zero foundation for it in the facts as I understand them."

The Detective said, "She could have wounded them. She didn't have to kill them."

Agent Parker looked at Annie and said, "You don't have to, but if you wish, you can make a comment to answer the Detective."

Annie said very clearly, "I wasn't trying to kill anybody. I didn't kill the first guy, though I think I could have, but I was out of time, they were struggling to raise their weapons so I fought back with the only weapon I had, the pistol I'd taken from the first guy. I shot them both twice because that is how I train, double taps. It's how almost everybody trains with a handgun, including the FBI as I recall." Annie looked at the female FBI agent who nodded in agreement.

The Detective said, "but if she had just told them to stop she might have been able to disarm them-"

Agent Parker cut him off saying, "Detective, that is in the contest for most preposterous statement I've ever heard from a law enforcement professional. She, a hundred-and-fifteen pound woman in bare feet, was taking on a total of close to 500 pounds of young, fit males armed with a handgun and two assault rifles, and a total of what – 76 rounds of ammo between them. The disparity of force is overwhelming in their favor. The action had to be over in less than ten seconds or she was going to be killed. She had no time to decide to do anything other than point the pistol in their general direction and start pulling the trigger."

The Detective flushed red. Agent Parker didn't seem to notice saying, "Okay, with that behind us, do you have any other questions you need to ask the Gunny here?"

"No, but I'd like to question her again."

"Mrs. Annie Anderson the 'her' in question?"

"Yes."

"Tony, you have room on the recorder?"

"Yes, nearly an hour of recording time left."

"Annie, you willing to answer more questions?"

Annie looked at Tony who said, "It's up to you. Frankly I think you have given all the statement needed."

Annie thought for a moment about the Detective's apparent agenda and said, "I'm okay with a few more, but if they are just a rehash, I'm done."

Tony said, "Okay, want to sit down?"

"No, I'd prefer to stand," Annie said because it gave her a height advantage and the Detective would have to remain sitting to use his note pad effectively.

"Detective?" Tony asked.

The Detective asked, "Mrs. Anderson, what were your intentions when you attacked the three men who entered the house?"

"To stop them from inflicting grave or mortal injury on myself, my husband and our family."

"Why did you think they were going to do that?"

"They threatened with lethal force, demonstrated reckless endangerment with loaded weapons, and had no other reason to have appeared at the door in the manner, time, and state that they did. They had loaded lethal weapons and demonstrated the intention to use them."

"Why didn't you just do what they asked?"

"You are kidding, right?"

"No, that's a serious question."

"We, the family, have the right to security in our house. My presumption was that these armed threatening men, who were uninvited, were not here for any discernible good purpose. So I acted to stop them from continuing their illegal and threatening behavior. That resulted in incapacitating injury to one of them; the other two didn't survive their wounds. And now I'm done with your questions."

The Detective said, "I have a few more-"

Tony said, "Were done. None of us here can reasonably be considered to be suspects in any crime. The actions taken by Mrs. Anderson clearly fall completely within the statutes of permissible use of lethal force for self-defense. We have been answering questions in good faith. We have clearly articulated the facts of the incident to those charged with investigating it. We are done. Detective, if the ME has finish, please take yourself and all others, the bodies, and leave."

Agent Parker said, "Tony, I have something to do before they all leave. Sergeant, please collect all on scene personnel where I can address them all; I think there is room for them to stand in the living room. I have a Federal Gag Order signed by a Federal Judge forbidding any of you investigating the crime directly, or who have contact with it in any way, and all other persons, from discussing this crime with the media, newspapers, or disseminating any information whatsoever related to the identity of Anne Anderson or August Anderson or anyone in the house. In other words, just to be perfectly clear, the identities of everyone here are to be protected from publication or broadcast in any way, shape, or form. I realize that the house could be in the media, and that folks can get the names of the owners, but that is no excuse. The media can publish that data, but nothing related to the names and identities of the people actually in the house when the event occurred. I have copies of the court order in my brief case which I will pass out when you get everyone assembled." She looked at Sergeant Jamison who was listening intently and said with a smile, "Are you still here?"

The sergeant jumped up and left to do her bidding with a smile.

Agent Parker said, "I'm going to run out and grab my briefcase, be right back. Alan or Anthony, would you be willing to get everybody in the family but Auggie and Annie some place where I can talk to them after I talk to the law enforcement folks? I want to ask them a general question or two as a group, then we will be pretty much done and out of your hair. Annie, Auggie, if you would like to, please have a seat here and wait for me to come back."

Anthony looked at Alan and said, "We'd be glad to do that. I think where they are right now is probably the best place, I'll tell them you are coming. Alan, are you willing to wait here and bring Agent Parker to us?"

"Sure, Bro."

Anthony left walking toward the family room; Alan went to the foyer to wait for Agent Parker. He stepped back and told Annie and Auggie, "The bodies have been picked up."

Anthony had taken but a few steps when he turned back to address Agent Parker, "Agent Parker, do you have a laptop in your briefcase? I'd like to transfer a copy of the interviews, and the conversation caught between the interviews, before you leave. Now would be a good time to do that if you have the equipment – a laptop with a USB port – with you."

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do have that with me." Agent Parker hurried out to her vehicle and returned in just a few moments. She set the black briefcase on the table and opened it. She pulled out her laptop and set it on the table beside the briefcase.

After Agent Parker woke the laptop from its idle state, Anthony pulled a USB cord from his pocket and plugged one end in to the digital recorder on the table and then handed the other end to the FBI agent. "There's only one file on here."

"Found it," Agent Parked advised and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "Okay, while it transfers, we can get on with the rest of the family. I'll grab my briefcase and laptop on my way out after I'm done with the family."

Anthony nodded and headed back into the other part of the house. Alan, now followed by Agent Parker carrying a sheaf of papers, returned to the front of the house. A few minutes later, Annie heard the crime scene crew walking in and heading into the living room. A minute or so later she heard Agent Parker address them, handing out copies of the court order, explaining it to them, asking if there were any questions, and then dismissing them.

Annie looked at Auggie who was sitting there with his brow wrinkled deep in thought. She interrupted him saying with a quiet and obviously nervous voice, "The worst part is coming Auggie."

"What's that Annie?"

"Facing the music. I killed people in their house, are they going to hate me? Are they going to think of me as a monster?"

She saw Auggie's head pop up with a look of surprise and when he didn't answer right away, she said, "Oh Auggie, I'm so sorry-"

"Annie!" he said quietly but forcefully, "I told you earlier that I don't know how they're gonna react. You should be their hero. You saved them. And look at how Anthony and Alan have stepped in to surround you with protection and concern for your well-being."

She said, "I'm not so sure about that, I thought I heard somebody saying something about bringing that killer into this house, or something like that. Auggie, can I just leave out the front door and be gone forever. I'm so afraid what they think will hurt you."

Agent Parker apparently overheard part of the conversation because she said, "Alan, would you leave us for a minute?"

"I know why you're here Agent Parker. I'm the only one in the family that knows what Annie and Auggie really do. Unless you're going to say something above my security clearance level, I'm staying."

The FBI agent looked at Annie. Annie nodded her consent to proceed with what she was going to say.

"Mrs. Anderson, Annie, when I'm done with them, I'm going to make a small speech on your behalf if that's okay with you. I've been in this situation before, where someone has performed an act of extreme valor and been frightened of the consequences to their relationship with those they love, and who they are afraid won't love them any longer. "

Annie nodded again. Agent Parker was a wise woman; she understood just how Annie felt – scared to her core.

Agent Parker continued, "You are an amazing and very courageous person. I'm honored to have met you to tell the truth. I am presuming they have not been read in, is that correct?"

"That's correct. Like he said, Alan is the only one who knows. They think I work for the Smithsonian Institution in the Acquisitions Department and that Auggie works for the Pentagon in a very important IT position," Annie said.

Agent Parker responded, "Good, that is exactly what I was told is the cover story. The official reason for my being here is to protect Auggie's identity because of his classified job at the Pentagon, and yours as well because you are his wife." She paused, then continued, "You guys good with that?"

They both nodded and Auggie said, "Yes, we are."

Agent Parker changed the subject, "The others are gone and the front door closed and locked. Let me go in there, introduce myself, make a short speech about the necessity of keeping names out of the media and ask if there are any questions. I would like to be there when you first come into the room Annie, if I may. I think I can help."

Annie squeezed Auggie's hand hard but said, "Okay." At the moment she still wanted to fade away into the night and not have to face the rest of the family. Auggie kept ahold of her hand and Alan placed a hand firmly on her shoulder giving it a strong squeeze.

"Okay, I'll call you in a couple of minutes; you may be able to hear what I have to say." Agent Parker followed Alan across the kitchen and around the corner into the family room.

From where she sat on one of the dining room chairs backing up to the opening to the front hallway, Annie could easily hear the FBI Agent addressing the family. "Hi Andersons. I'm Special Agent Devlin Parker of the Chicago FBI office. You may be wondering why I'm here, and I'm going to answer that question right now. My assignment here is to protect the identity of Annie and Auggie, keep them out of the press. As you all know, Auggie has a classified job at the Pentagon. It is much better for the country, and Auggie, if his identity isn't well-known outside the family. It could put him and his immediate family, Annie, in danger. I have given every member of the law enforcement staff and related crime scene investigation disciplines a copy of this Federal Court Gag Order which makes it a Federal Crime to reveal the identities of Annie or Auggie in relation to the events of tonight. Anthony, if you will take this, you can make copies for anyone in the family that would like to read it and explain it to them in more detail if that's necessary." She paused. "Any questions?"

Apparently there were none; so she said, "Now, with your permission I'm going to make a short personal speech that I hope you folks will consider when Annie and Auggie come in here to rejoin you."

"Please do," Alan said.

Agent Parker began, "There are those in our society who find themselves with the opportunity to provide a priceless service to their fellow citizens, family and friends, if they are willing to perform an act of extreme valor at great risk of harm or death to themselves. They didn't ask for the opportunity, they didn't seek glory or accolades; they sought only to prevent harm from coming to those they love. Carl Sandburg once characterized Valor in a way that, to me, says it all when he wrote:

'_Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes.'" _

There was another long pause and then Agent Parker remarked, "You were blessed this night to have a person who exhibited the gift of extreme valor. With no thought of consequence to herself, she single-handedly literally threw herself at three armed and violent home invaders and stopped them from harming you.

"In my life, I have seen, or even heard of, few, if any, acts that equal what she did for you tonight. The men that came through that front door were armed with weapons containing 76 rounds of ammunition; each round could cause grievous injury or death. They had made no attempt to disguise their identities from you, only to prevent leaving trace evidence. In my professional opinion, they planned to inflict extreme violence or death on all of you. Annie stopped them at the front door.

"I'm telling you this because she is going to need your love and support to overcome the effects on her of what she had to do. For myself I regard her as a hero. I can only hope that if I'm ever unfortunate to have such an opportunity, I conduct myself even half as well as she did.

"With that, I'm going to ask Annie and Auggie to rejoin you and be on my way. God Bless you all."

Annie stood shrinking inside while she heard Agent Parker's speech, but it gave her hope that they would forgive her for what she had done. She was more afraid to walk around that corner than she had been of anything before in her life. Auggie must have felt her shaking because he turned her to face him, gently drew her into a hug, and gave her a tender kiss that echoed what he said next, "Annie, I love you unconditionally. I think they do, too. Give them a chance. When they ask, just tell your story, the facts, simply and directly. They will understand."

Annie could feel the love coming from Auggie, and hopefully he was channeling love from the others. She straightened up, _Anne Catherine Walker-Anderson, CIA, I can do this,_ she told herself, She looked at Auggie and said, "Honey, let's do this."

Holding hands they walked across the kitchen and around the corner to face the family. Looking at the faces, Annie could see a lot of emotions: love, concern, and fear for her well-being. She saw eyes traveling over her looking for injuries, seeing the bandage on her hand, but nowhere did she see a look of accusation, of contempt, of despise, or of disapproval. At that moment she fell in love with the Anderson family all over again.

Jenna, the first to respond, jumped up and moved to Annie, stopped for a moment, then pulled her into a hug saying, "Thank you. Thank you for my life, for my family's life. I've never been so terrified of anything, ever, as I was when that man jammed his gun to my head, I thought I was dead, and then somehow you fixed it," releasing Annie to move back a few inches she said, "I'm still not sure how you did what you did so fast as you did it, but you were amazing. Scary a little," she admitted and smiled, "but still amazing."

At that point they all, one-by-one, came up to embrace Annie first and then Auggie. Abigail Anderson was the next to last and said, "I speak for both of us – Alfred and I – when I say we have given our lives and love to raise this family. Those evil men at the front door were here to take our life's work away from us, and, Annie, you stopped them in their tracks. You probably don't feel like it, but you are my personal hero and I love you beyond all reason. Thank you, and thank you Auggie for bringing this wonderful person into the family."

Annie, overcome with a cascading wash of emotions, felt tears streaming down her cheeks and hoped nobody wanted her to say anything. How he knew always amazed her, but she was not surprised when Auggie raised a hand, found and touched her face, and then wiped at the tears. Silently he wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her until she got her sobs under control. Mostly she felt such relief that she could hardly stand. It was going to be okay. She hadn't lost them. It would be safe to tell her story. She told herself to stop being such a wimp and face them. She gently pulled away from Auggie, then leaned back to give him a kiss and said, "Thanks, I needed that."

She turned to the others just as Abigail asked, "Annie, if you are willing, we would really like to hear your story about what happened."

Annie nodded, and then told her story. There were gasps, looks of wonder, and outright admiration from all. Standing there she wanted to once again shrink into the background. Not from fear, but from self-consciousness. They were acting like what she'd done was a big deal. Wouldn't they have done the same?

When it was over, and their questions answered, Austin stood up and said, "Annie, you don't know it but I owe you an apology. I doubted you for a few minutes. I was the only one, and the rest rallied around you with reason and logic and convinced me I was wrong. And I was. You are an inspiration to us all."

Annie said, "Thank all of you for the love and support. It means more to me than you will ever know. Please don't think me ungrateful but I have to ask that you don't ever discuss this with anybody outside this room, or where anybody can overhear you. It could put Auggie and me in great danger."

From the looks on her extended family's faces, Annie knew they understood what she'd just asked of them – to keep silent on the most important event that they might ever experience, especially the youngest ones over in the corner. They, the teenagers, looked at each other and then back at her with mouths agape and eyes wide. It was as if they were seeing their aunt for the first time. And, in a way, they were. Annie took the few steps it took to get to where the teens were seated, pulled out one of the game table chairs and sat down. She leaned in toward the cluster of young adults, "You all are rather fond of your Uncle Auggie aren't you?"

Sixteen-year-old Alexis, Adam's oldest daughter and the oldest of the four teens, spoke first. "Yes, we all adore Uncle Auggie. We all are old enough that we remember when he could still see. He was cool then and even more so now."

"Thought so," Annie said softly. "You wouldn't want to see anything happen to him would you?"

"No, of course not," Lucas, aged fifteen and Anthony's eldest son, exclaimed.

"Good. Then I can count on the four of you to never say anything to anyone about what happened here tonight? Even though he didn't do anything, if it got out that he was here, and certain people found out about that, it could hurt him. He might not be able to do what he does anymore and that would really make him sad, because he really likes what he does and it's a very important job. I know it's a lot to ask, but it's so important that you don't talk about this ever again." It was a calculated risk she had to take; if there was going to be a leak in the family it would probably be one of these impressionable kids talking out of turn. She hadn't been in the family long enough to have any real standing with the kids, but she'd seen them with Auggie and they seemed to adore him as Alexis had admitted.

"I'm not asking for me," Annie continued, "Just for your Uncle Auggie. He'd never ask for himself."

"Aunt Annie," Meghan, aged thirteen and Adam's youngest daughter, began, "We know what's at stake for both of you. If we talk about you, people are going to know that Uncle Auggie's in it, too. Our lips are sealed. You both can count on that." Meghan got out of her chair and approached her aunt. "You're family now, and Andersons stick together. If we have to we'll just admit we were here when it happened, but just don't want to talk about it. It's that simple."

"Thanks," Annie replied.

Meghan gave her aunt a quick hug before bouncing over to her mother. "Mom," Meghan said addressing Olivia, "now that some of the commotion has died down, can we get something to eat. I'm hungry. And a while ago Uncle Alan said you could feed us." She wasn't whiny or accusatory in her tone, but it was clear she expected action on her request.

"Mom?" Olivia said looking at Abigail. "Do you think we can salvage any of the dinner we'd planned? I could eat, too. Not much, but I think most of us would like to unwind with a bit of food."

"I think it's too late to grill the burgers, but I think that most of it should be okay. And I've got stuff that we could make turkey or ham sandwiches with," Abigail quickly replied. "Jess, Livvie, would you help me sort through stuff? We'll do a buffet in the kitchen?"

While the other women set the food out on the kitchen island, Annie disappeared into the downstairs bathroom. After splashing some cool water on her face and thoroughly washing her hands and arms, she sat on the commode for a few minutes. Finally, it seemed, the adrenaline was beginning to lessen in her system. Her body was starting to ache and she had a strong desire to sleep. But, for a bit anyway, she needed to be with the family. That's what she and Auggie had come to do.

Once the food was set out, first the kids and then several of the adults made themselves plates and wandered off to eat. Some stayed in the kitchen to sit at the breakfast table, or went back into the TV side of the family room. Annie made Auggie a turkey sandwich and brought him to a seat at the game table. Then she made one for herself and sat beside him. She knew that both of them needed to eat something, but she wasn't sure that she could keep anything down. After taking a few tentative bites, Annie put her sandwich down on her plate. Before eating anymore she wanted to make sure that what she'd already eaten was going to stay down; she was still queasy.

"Is something wrong, Annie," Abigail Anderson asked as she came up behind Annie.

"Yes. And no," Annie responded quietly. "I've been a bit queasy since right after … I'm not sure that I'll be able to keep what little bit I've eaten down."

"Ah, I see," Abigail replied. "Do you know that you've got a gash on your right heel, too? I'm going to go and get things so that we can get that looked at."

Annie looked down at her heel and saw the inch long horizontal gash in her heel. A small trickle of blood oozed from it and dripped on the tile floor. Aghast Annie looked around and saw the trail of droplets of blood on the family room floor and trailing off into the kitchen. _Now besides the blood of the men I killed, I've left bits of my own in the house. It will be easy enough to clean off the tile and stone floors, but probably a bitch to get out of the living room carpet._ She huffed in exasperation.

"Annie?" Auggie asked with alarm. "What's wrong, dear?"

"I've bled all over your mother's floors. Just thinking of the cleanup; it will be easy enough in here, but I'm afraid I might have ruined the carpet in the living room."

"Oh. Is that all? I thought it was something serious."

"Serious enough," Annie replied.

"It's nothing, Annie," Abigail said as she sat down cross-legged on the floor at her daughter-in-law's side. "While you were in the other part of the house putting up with the cops, I called a restoration company. They'll clean it all up for us in the morning. Now the only thing that matters is getting you cleaned up so this doesn't get infected." Abigail was dabbing at the wound with a damp washcloth. Once she had the bits of dried blood off Annie's heel, Abigail applied a generous amount of an antibiotic ointment and a wide Band-Aid.

"Thank you, Mom," Annie said when Abigail got up from the floor. "I'll pay for the cleanup."

"You will do no such thing!" Abigail exclaimed. "It's a small price to pay for still having my family alive and relatively well. Those hooligans were here for no good purpose and you, my brave daughter-in-law, stopped them from massacring us all for whatever kicks they thought they'd get. I am so happy that you and August came here today to celebrate Independence Day with us. I shudder to think of what might have happened if you'd not been here." Abigail wrapped her arms around Annie's shoulders.

Once again tears began to flow from Annie's eyes. Unsuccessfully choking back a sob, Annie began to tremble almost uncontrollably.

Auggie scooted his chair close to his wife and, after nudging his mother's arms out of the way, wrapped his around Annie. He brought his head close to hers and whispered, "It's okay, Babe. Let it out. You've been holding it back for a couple of hours now. You're safe here. I'm here. It's all over. You're fine."

"Annie?" Abigail asked with alarm. "What's wrong?"

"She's just coming down, Mom," Auggie offered. "She's probably been running on pure adrenaline since … since the doorbell rang. She'll be okay in a bit. Austin?"

"Yeah, Auggie," Austin said getting up from his seat on the sofa.

"Do you think you can carry her up to the guest room for me? I want to get her somewhere quiet. I can't –"

"No problem, bro," Austin replied and scooped Annie up in his arms. "Jenna?"

"Go!" Jenna told her husband. "I'll go on ahead and turn down the bed. Then between Auggie and I we'll get her comfortable."

Her body wracked with sobs, Annie allowed her husband's brother to carry her up to the first bedroom on the right at the head of the stairs. She was barely able to help Jenna remove her shorts. When Auggie climbed into the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her, she finally felt totally safe.

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><p><strong>The family reaction surprise anyone? Austin redeem himself?<strong>


	9. The Morning After

**Here's the next installment for your reading pleasure - that is asuming that people are still hanging with me. Not that I honestly care. '-) Traffic is still okay, so some are still here. This might perk some of you up. Annie and Auggie in bed.**

**This section has been looked at by both fbobs and Mandy58. They've determined it's fit for you to see. I do so appreciate their input.**

**Once again, I need to say that I have no intention to infringe on the rights of the real writers of Covert Affairs. I just like to imagine Annie and Auggie in situations that the writers are not able to do.**

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><p><strong>Annie Anderson<strong>

Annie woke the next morning with Auggie's arms still wrapped protectively around her. Snuggled into his arms with his arm wrapped protectively around her she realized that he still wore the clothes from the day before. The memory of what happened last evening came flooding back. A certain amount of guilt washed over her – not guilt for killing those particular young men, but a generalized guilt for taking the life of another human; she didn't take that lightly. A small part of her mind wondered what had happened in those young men's lives to have brought them to do what they'd done the night before that had cost them their lives.

"Morning," Auggie whispered.

"Morning," Annie responded. "How did you know I was awake?"

"Didn't," Auggie replied. "I've been whispering 'morning' every once in a while hoping for a response. How are you this morning?"

"Feeling somewhat guilty for taking a life, but not much more than that." She winced slightly as she shifted her position so that she lay on her back. "Somewhat stiff and a bit sore, but not horribly so. Not as much as I could be I guess. … Kiss me."

"You up for that?"

"I don't hurt that much. My left hip is going to be bruised, but it's nothing," Annie replied and began to caress her husband seductively. Her lust for her husband was greater than normal this morning, and he was always willing to accommodate her. When she awoke in the spooning position a few minutes ago, she was aware of his hardness as it pressed lightly into her backside. Even if he'd not been aroused, she would have wanted him this morning. They'd survived an incident that could have cost them all their lives and she needed to celebrate that.

Forty-five minutes later when Annie and Auggie finally emerged from their room and headed down the stairs their path was blocked by Abigail Anderson sitting on the stairs supervising the cleanup crew from the restoration company. One woman in white coveralls and latex gloves worked a carpet cleaning machine in the living room; a young man, in gear similar to the woman's, was on his hands and knees in the foyer with a bucket of cleaning solution, a rag and a scrub brush.

"Hi, Mom," Annie said as she started down the stairs with Auggie right behind her. She spoke as much to greet her mother-in-law as to warn her husband that there was someone else on the stairway. "I see the mess is getting cleaned up."

Abigail turned slightly and said, "Good morning you two. Annie, I must say that you look much better than you did last evening. Did you get a good night's rest?"

"Yes, I feel better than I did last evening, too. Thank you, yes I did sleep quite well," Annie responded.

"And to comment on your other statement, yes, last night's mess, as you called it, is almost cleaned up. Even though it's a holiday, these two arrived as scheduled and are almost done it seems. The spots of blood in the living room are coming up easily; the bigger mess in the foyer is coming off the slate easily enough, but the rug will need to be replaced. And the walls will need to be painted, but I've wanted to do that for a while so it's not a big deal." Abigail got up from where she'd been sitting on the third step from the bottom and moved off into the hallway. "These young people certainly don't need my supervision, but I was curious to see what techniques and supplies they'd use to clean the – "

"We know, Mom," Auggie interjected.

"Stuff from the floors, carpet and rugs. You two have got to be starving. Auggie didn't have much to eat last night, and Annie you had even less. Alan and Fred have been up and fed for a good hour now. What would you like?"

"What have you got, Mom?" Auggie asked as he descended the steps. "Can you make blueberry pancakes?"

"Of course I can," Abigail said as she entered the kitchen. "I got fresh berries just in case you were able to come. I knew at least one morning you'd want some. Annie, is that good for you, too?"

"Oh, yes!" Annie replied. "I am quite hungry and those sound good. Just a small stack. Do you have any sausage?"

"Whatever you want, Annie dear," Abigail said and turned to embrace her daughter-in-law. "We were so worried about you after you sort of collapsed. Adam explained how adrenaline acts and lets you do extraordinary things, and then how some people react once it's leaving their system. Are you really okay this morning?" There was concern in Abigail's voice and she reached out to give Annie what was to her a welcome hug. It cemented for Annie the fact that Abigail's feelings for her hadn't changed.

Auggie reached into the cabinet above the coffee maker and withdrew two cups. He filled the first cup and held it out, "Annie?"

"Thanks Auggie," Annie said as she stepped out of Abigail's embrace and took the cup from her husband. After a quick sip, she turned back to her mother-in-law. "I'm not 100%, but I'm okay. I'm a bit stiff and may have some bruising where I body slammed the first guy, and my wrist is a bit tender from slamming it into his chest, but that's it physically. Emotionally I'm sort of shaky. I'm not happy that two men, well boys, died as a result of my actions – I really did not mean to do that; I just wanted to stop them – but," she paused looking inward for a moment before saying, "God help me, I'd do it all over again if I had to." While she was speaking, Annie moved off toward the breakfast table with her coffee and sat down in one of the seats at the back of the round table. Her back was in the bay window and she faced into the kitchen where she could watch Abigail work. Under normal circumstances she would have helped her mother-in-law fix the breakfast; or, she would have just gone ahead and fixed herself and Auggie their own meal; but this morning was far from a normal morning in the Anderson house. If she'd read her mother-in-law correctly – and she was pretty confident that she had – Abigail would have shooed her, and Auggie, out of the kitchen anyway. Not wanting to appear presumptive, Annie asked quietly, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not this morning, Annie," Abigail responded. "I've got this under control. You and Auggie just relax and enjoy your coffee. Auggie, your dad and brother are out in the back on the deck if you'd care to join them. I'll come get you when your breakfast is ready."

"Thanks, but I think I'll just sit here with you and Annie. There'll be plenty of time to catch up with Dad and Alan in the next few days." His slightly extended left hand brushed against the back of one of the empty breakfast set chairs. "Annie?"

"Slightly to your left is your usual seat. It's pushed in. I'm all the way to the backside of the table."

A slight grin of thanks spread across her husband's features. His left hand ghosted along the curve of the table as he located the other chair. Once he was seated he smiled toward the kitchen and said, "I'm not even going to bother to ask if I can help. I know what the answer will be."

"Under normal circumstances and attitude like that would get you setting the table, but today is not normal, so I'll let you get away with it,"

"Why is it not a normal morning?" Auggie asked and grinned mischievously.

"Well, it's not normal because my seldom seen son and his wonderful wife have traveled all the way from Washington, DC to spend some time with his parents and siblings. That's why," Abigail stated emphatically. Then in a softer voice, "And because if you hadn't been here last night we'd probably all be dead now."

The sound of a key in the lock of the backdoor caused everyone to turn in that direction, effectively terminating any potential immediate response from either Annie or Auggie. A few moments later Adam, carrying his small black doctor's bag with him, entered the kitchen from the mudroom. He was alone.

"Morning all," Adam said as he rounded the end of the peninsula that separated the kitchen work area from the walkway from the back door into the area. "How are you this morning, Annie? I came early to check you out. Livvie and the girls will be over a bit later."

"I'm fine, Adam," Annie stated. "There was no need for you to come check me out. Once I get some breakfast …"

"Livvie got a call earlier this morning from a very concerned Jenna. You really freaked her out last night. We all were."

"She was fine last time I remember seeing her. She came upstairs and helped Auggie get me ready for bed."

"When she came back downstairs she was upset. Apparently she'd seen the large bruise developing on your left hip and side. And she said that you winced when she touched your right wrist, too. She was up part of the night worried that you'd really hurt yourself saving her. And, quite frankly, so were Livvie and I. Livvie and I decided that I should come and check on you, just to put everyone's mind at ease. Do you mind? It won't take but a few minutes."

_Oh, great, Annie thought. I'm fine and everyone is concerned I'm not. Sort of nice, but __not really necessary. __I've been hurt far worse without anyone saying a thing_. Extending both arms out on the table she said, "See? My right wrist is only slightly swollen." She rotated her wrist and then moved it up and down. She even made a tight fist. "I can move it just fine without screaming in pain. I'll admit that it is a bit tender, but I've hurt it worse and been just fine. Satisfied?"

"About that, yes. But I'd still like to check out the extent of the bruising." His voice was soft, but very firm. It was apparent that he expected compliance with his request.

"Obviously I couldn't check that this morning myself," Auggie said. "I'd like to know how hurt you are, too. I know you'd downplay it, so I haven't asked, but I'm asking that you let Adam take a look." He turned his head toward his brother, "I expect that you'll tell me the truth about my wife's injuries." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Annie stood and moved out from behind the table and stood just behind where Auggie was sitting. After undoing the snap and zipper on her heavy cotton shorts, she dropped the left side to where her entire hip area was exposed and then lifted her silk blend T-shirt to just below the band of her bra.

Abigail gasped and exclaimed, "Oh, my!"

"Thank you, Annie," Adam said moments later as he nodded toward the seat to Auggie's immediate right. "Please have a seat where I can listen to your heart and take your blood pressure. Then I'll be done. The bruising is extensive; but you knew that already didn't you?"

"Yeah, I looked in the mirror this morning when I took my shower," Annie admitted as she pulled out the chair and sat down in it.

"Adam?" Auggie asked with alarm. His sudden concern evident in his features and posture.

"In a minute, bro. Let me finish here and then I'll tell you what you want to know," Adam said as he patted his brother on the shoulder and then sat his bag on the table. He withdrew a small automatic BP cuff and affixed it around Annie's left wrist, pushed the button, and then had Annie raise her arm to her chest. While the BP was being taken Adam listened to his sister-in-law's heart and lungs. After the BP monitor beeped softly, Adam removed it from Annie's wrist. A pleased smile came to his face as he read the digital readout window. "Heart, lungs and BP are all within normal limits for a healthy young woman. Annie's wrist is obviously injured, but not broken. The bruised area is large and the bruising deep, but I'm not concerned. Now, I have to go and call both Livvie and Jenna, but not in that order."

Adam moved off toward the family room. Auggie got up to follow him. Annie went back to the seat in the bay window and took a large sip of her coffee. Near the stove Abigail tossed a few links of sausage in a small skillet, and then turned to mix up the pancake batter.

Abigail worked in silence while she sifted the flour and other dry ingredients into a medium-sized glass bowl. After cracking an egg into a smaller glass bowl and measuring out the milk, she said, "That bruise has got to hurt like fire. I've got just about every brand of over-the-counter pain relievers here. What would you like?"

"I don't really need anything, Mom," Annie replied. "Yes, my side aches a bit and a bit more when I move, but it's nothing that I can't handle. Really."

"You are a remarkable woman, Annie," Abigail replied. "I reach for the Tylenol if I get a hangnail, and here you are with something far more significant than that and don't want anything."

"I train strenuously several times a week, and I'm always sore afterwards. I'm, sad to say, used to hurting a bit. Will it make you feel better if I say that I might want something later this evening if it's going to keep me from sleeping?"

After moving the sausage links around in the skillet, Abigail said, "Yes, I think that would do just that." She finished mixing the wet ingredients for the pancakes into the dry. "August, are you and Adam about finished out there? I'm about ready to drop the pancakes on the griddle," she said in voice that would be heard all the way in the family room.

Auggie, coming around the corner from family room into kitchen, replied, "Yes. For once I think I got a straight answer out of my doctor brother. I'm not too happy with my wife for not telling me how badly bruised she was, but I guess I'll get over that."

"I told you I was sore and a bit bruised," Annie countered as Auggie found and took his seat at the table.

"No. When I asked you said, and I quote here, 'I have a bit of a bruise on my hip, but it's nothing.' A bruise that covers almost a third of your torso is not 'nothing'. It's something. If I wasn't so relieved that you only have a bruise and not gunshot wounds I'd …"

From the front hallway a male voice said, "Mrs. Anderson, if you'd come examine the cleanup job we've done for you, we'll get out of here."

After wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and picking up a credit card from the end of the peninsula, Abigail moved off toward the front of the house, but not before advising, "I'll be just few minutes. I'll finish breakfast when I get back. August, I do not want to have to break up a marital spat when I do return. Understood?"

"Yes, Mom." Auggie sighed in frustration.

Knowing he couldn't see her, Annie smiled at her husband's little boy acquiescence to his mother's request. "You'd what?" Annie teased.

"I'd turn you over my knee," Auggie replied in all seriousness. "But you might just like that," he retorted moments later.

"I might," Annie whispered into her husband's ear as she passed him on her way into the kitchen proper. After splashing a few drops of water on the griddle and watching them skitter off into oblivion, Annie dropped several healthy ladles full of pancake batter onto the hot surface and then tossed a good handful of fresh blueberries onto each dollop of batter. By the time Abigail returned to the kitchen the pancakes were ready to plate and serve.

"Auggie, do you want maple or blueberry syrup?" Annie asked as she carefully stacked three of the five pancakes onto one of the waiting plates.

"Do you have to ask?" Auggie replied.

"Not really. Maple it is," Anne stated teasingly.

"Annie!"

"Auggie!" Annie whispered as she placed the plate in front of her husband. "Do you want me to finish fixing for you? Or do you want to do for yourself?" Sometimes he liked her to butter his pancakes and pour the syrup on them; sometimes he liked to do that himself. She always asked.

"Well, my trust level in you sort of just took a ding. I'll do it myself. Could I have a wet towel please?"

"Here's the wet towel, and here's the blueberry syrup," Annie said quietly. Anticipating his need Annie had brought a damp napkin with her, she paused long enough between placing the napkin in his hand to handing him the syrup that he had time enough to place the damp cloth to the side of his plate. "Pancakes are slightly to the 9 o'clock side of center and the sausage links take up the rest of the space." His statement that his trust in her just took a ding upset her, but she tried not to let it show as she retraced her steps to retrieve her own plate. She passed Abigail with the coffee carafe heading toward the table to refill coffee cups. As she moved past where she was refilling her son's coffee mug, Annie couldn't help but overhear her mother-in-law chastise her son.

"That was a bit harsh," Abigail whispered.

Auggie didn't reply as he concentrated on fixing his pancakes. When he was finished he replied, "Mom, this just got me to thinking what else she's kept from me because I can't see it. Sometimes she'll leave gifts for me out in plain sight if I could see, but that's little stuff. Insignificant stuff. How badly she's hurt isn't little nor insignificant. She should have told me, shown me, this morning. I knew she was hurt, I wanted to know how badly and she blew it off as 'nothing'." He didn't seem to care if Annie heard him or cared.

"Maybe to her it is?"

"Maybe. But I still would have liked to know the extent and size of the bruising."

"I'm sorry, Auggie," Annie said as she reached for the syrup pitcher. She was sorry. If she'd known it was going to create this much hubbub she would have been more forthcoming with her description of her injuries that morning. "It was the first time, and it will be the last."

Auggie shrugged his shoulders and stabbed at the 3 o'clock side of his plate. He was rewarded with a link of the sausage. After eating a bite he said, "That remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

Further discussion between Annie and Auggie was prevented with the phone in Auggie's pocket began to warble. "Damnit," he said as he fished it out of his pocket and answered sharply, "Anderson."

Abigail quickly refilled Annie's coffee mug and retreated to the other side of the kitchen.

"I'm sitting here trying to eat my breakfast. … No, I don't care what's broken; I'm not flying back to DC to fix it. … That's right. … Okay, I'll see you Monday."

Annie could tell by his tone as much as by what Auggie wasn't saying that he was talking to Joan Campbell. She was surprised that it had taken her so long to call either of them. After Auggie put his phone back in his pocket, he dug into the pancakes with gusto. He seemed in no hurry to tell her about the call; she decided to try to get some information from him. "Was that Joan?"

"Yeah. She wanted to know who of the crew back in DC might be able to handle something. Her first pick would have been mine, so we're good. I'll call back in a couple of hours to make sure that everything is going okay, but we don't have to cut our trip short."

Reading between the lines, Annie guessed that Joan had seen the preliminary report from the FBI and was okay with them staying on for a bit longer. Even so, Annie wasn't looking forward to the lecture she knew was coming from Joan when she got back to the DPD on Monday.

After they'd eaten and cleared their plates from the table, Auggie pulled Annie aside and advised her, "Joan wants you to call her. She sounded concerned. I was in no position to do more than receive that message." He kissed her lightly on the neck after he'd whispered his message in her ear.

"I'll find a way to excuse myself from the rest of you shortly," Annie whispered back. Then in a normal tone she asked, "Really, how big a ding did I put in your trust? I really didn't think. I thought that you'd be over protective of me if you knew. I was just trying to protect you from worrying about me."

"I am still a bit upset with you, but it will pass. If I'd known … I'm sorry if I hurt you this morning."

"You didn't hurt me this morning – not that I noticed anyway." Annie kissed her husband and broke the embrace. "I've got to go freshen up a bit now," she said to her mother-in-law who was just coming back into the kitchen from the family room. "I'll be back in a few minutes to help you get things cleaned up here in the kitchen."

"Is everything all right?" Abigail asked.

"Yes, Mom, everything is alright. I just need to brush my teeth. I'll be back down in a few minutes." As she usually did when she left him, Annie touched Auggie's arm as she left the room.

**Auggie Anderson**

Auggie woke still in the position he'd fallen asleep in the night before – cradling his wife in his arms. Annie's head was on his outstretched right arm, her back lightly touched his front, and her legs and his were tangled. His left arm was draped protectively over her. Her breathing was shallow and even. She'd had a rough evening and he debated quietly slipping out of bed and letting her sleep. He didn't know what time it was, but it felt late. There were subtle sounds that the rest of the household was up. The faint smell of coffee assailed his sense of smell. He could sure use a cup.

"Morning," Auggie whispered again. He knew Annie's habit of lying awake pretending to be asleep so she wouldn't wake him if he was still asleep. He'd softly whispered in her direction several times already since he'd awoken.

"Morning," Annie responded. "How did you know I was awake?"

"Didn't," Auggie replied. "I've been whispering 'morning' every once in a while hoping for a response. How are you this morning?"

"Feeling somewhat guilty for taking a life, but not much more than that." He felt her wince slightly as she shifted her position so that she lay on her back. He wasn't surprised that she'd be a bit tender this morning after what she'd done the night before. Body slamming a man half again her size was bound to leave her sore. "Somewhat stiff and a bit sore, but not horribly so. Not as much as I could be I guess. … Kiss me."

"You up for that?" He knew what she wanted without her spelling it out for him. He wanted that, too, but he also didn't want to hurt her if she was bruised.

"I don't hurt that much. My left hip is going to be bruised, but it's nothing," Annie replied as she began to caress him in that manner he found so seductive. As he often still did, he'd woken semi-erect. His wife's touches were designed to finish arousing him. They were working. He began to caress and kiss his wife in the ways that he knew she especially enjoyed.

When he'd satisfied himself and his very seductive wife, Auggie slipped into the bathroom to shower and shave while Annie rummaged around in her suitcase for something to wear. Once he was done he exited and let Annie in.

As he followed Annie down the stairs the scent of industrial strength cleaner and disinfectant assailed his nostrils. He'd noted it earlier, but it was almost overpowering here on the staircase. The only reason for that would be that the cleaning crew were here getting up the bodily fluids that had been left behind after last night's incident. Following his wife down the stairs suddenly seemed to be a good idea; he didn't want to trip over a workman or step in the area being cleaned.

"Hi, Mom," Annie said. "I see the mess is getting cleaned up."

"Good morning you two. Annie, I must say that you look much better than you did last evening. Did you get a good night's rest?"

From the location of his mother's voice Auggie guessed that she was sitting on one of the bottom steps supervising the worker.

"Yes, I feel better than I did last evening, too. Thank you, yes I did sleep quite well," Annie responded.

"And to comment on your other statement, yes, last night's mess, as you called it, is almost cleaned up. Even though it's a holiday, these two arrived as scheduled and are almost done it seems. The spots of blood in the living room are coming up easily; the bigger mess in the foyer is coming off the slate easily enough, but the rug we'll be replacing. And the walls will need to be painted, but I've wanted to do that for a while so it's not a big deal. These young people certainly don't need my supervision, but I was curious to see what techniques and supplies they'd use to clean the – "

"We know, Mom," Auggie interjected. And he did know that there was more than just blood on the floor where the men had fallen. Death was a messy business – in more ways than the one.

"Stuff from the floors, carpet and rugs. You two have got to be starving. Auggie didn't have much to eat last night, and Annie you had even less. Alan and Fred have been up and fed for a good hour now. What would you like?"

The change in location of his mother's voice clued him that she'd stood and was moving off down the hallway. "What have you got, Mom?" Auggie asked as he carefully descended the steps. "Can you make blueberry pancakes?"

At the bottom of the stairs Auggie made a tight turn around the newel post as he had last night and followed Annie and his mother down the hallway to the back of the house.

"Of course I can," Abigail said as she entered the kitchen. "I got fresh berries just in case you were able to come. I knew at least one morning you'd want some. Annie, is that good for you, too?"

"Oh, yes!" Annie replied. "I am quite hungry and those sound good. Just a small stack. Do you have sausage?"

Auggie brushed past where his mother was embracing Annie. At the moment all he wanted was a cup of coffee.

"Whatever you want, Annie dear. We were so worried about you after you sort of collapsed. Adam explained how adrenaline acts and lets you do extraordinary things, and then how some people react once it's leaving their system. Are you really okay this morning?" Auggie heard a small bit of lingering concern for Annie in his mother's tone. To tell the truth, he had a bit more concern for her at the moment, too. She was moving a bit more gingerly that he thought she might be. Auggie reached into the cabinet above the coffee maker and withdrew two cups. He filled the first cup and held it out, "Annie?"

"Thanks Auggie," Annie said as she took the cup from her husband. After a quick sip, she turned back to her mother-in-law. "I'm not 100%, but I'm okay. I'm a bit stiff and may have some bruising where I body slammed the first guy, and my wrist is a bit tender from slamming it into his chest, but that's it physically. Emotionally I'm sort of shaky. I'm not happy that two men, well boys, died as a result of my actions – I really did not mean to do that; I just wanted to stop them – but, God help me, I'd do it all over again if I had to." While she was speaking, Annie moved off toward the breakfast table with her coffee and sat down in one of the seats at the back of the round table. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not this morning, Annie," Abigail responded. "I've got this under control. You and Auggie just relax and enjoy your coffee. Auggie, your dad and brother are out in the back on the deck if you'd care to join them. I'll come get you when your breakfast is ready."

"Thanks, but I think I'll just sit here with you and Annie. There'll be plenty of time to catch up with Dad and Alan in the next few days." His slightly extended left hand brushed against the back of one of the empty breakfast set chairs. "Annie?"

"Slightly to your left is your usual seat. It's pushed in. I'm all the way to the backside of the table."

He allowed a small smile to lift the corners of his mouth. His wife always knew the right time and manner to cue him to the things that made his life just a bit easier. He really appreciated those little things she did for him. Once he was seated he smiled toward the kitchen and said, "I'm not even going to bother to ask if I can help. I know what the answer will be."

"Under normal circumstances and attitude like that would get you setting the table, but today is not normal, so I'll let you get away with it," Abigail teased.

"Why is it not a normal morning?" Auggie asked and grinned mischievously.

"Well, it's not normal because my seldom seen son and his wonderful wife have traveled all the way from Washington, DC to spend some time with his parents and siblings. That's why," Abigail stated emphatically. Then in a softer voice, "And because if you hadn't been here last night we'd probably all be dead now."

The sound of a key in the lock of the backdoor caused everyone to turn in that direction, effectively terminating any further repartee between Annie, Auggie and Abigail. Auggie cocked his ear toward the sounds of the closing door and the footsteps in the mudroom to try and figure out who had arrived – which of his brothers was arriving early.

He didn't have long to wait for his answer. "Morning all," Adam said as he rounded the end of the peninsula. "How are you this morning, Annie? I came early to check you out. Livvie and the girls will be over a bit later."

"I'm fine, Adam," Annie stated. "There was no need for you to come check me out. Once I get some breakfast …"

"Livvie got a call earlier this morning from a very concerned Jenna. You really freaked her out last night. We all were."

"She was fine last time I remember seeing her. She came upstairs and helped Auggie get me ready for bed."

"When she came back downstairs she was upset. Apparently she'd seen the large bruise developing on your left hip and side. And she said that you winced when she touched your right wrist, too. She was up part of the night worried that you'd really hurt yourself saving her. And, quite frankly, so were Livvie and I. Livvie and I decided that I should come and check on you, just to put everyone's mind at ease. Do you mind? It won't take but a few minutes."

Auggie now grew slightly concerned for Annie. Was she more injured that she was letting on? She'd been injured in the line of duty before, but had always disclosed to him the severity and nature of her injuries. She'd admitted she was bruised and she didn't think it was anything. He had to take her word for that though.

"See? My right wrist is only slightly swollen. I can move it just fine without screaming in pain. I'll admit that it is a bit tender, but I've hurt it worse and been just fine. Satisfied?"

"About that, yes. But I'd still like to check out the extent of the bruising." His voice was soft, but very firm. It was apparent that he expected compliance with his request.

"Obviously I couldn't check that this morning myself," Auggie said. "I'd like to know how hurt you are, too. I know you'd downplay it, so I haven't asked, but I'm asking that you let Adam take a look." He turned his head toward his brother, "I expect that you'll tell me the truth about my wife's injuries." It wasn't a question, but a statement. He was aware that Annie stood and moved out from behind the table; he heard her unzip her zipper.

The next thing Auggie heard was his mother gasp and exclaim, "Oh, my!" That wasn't a good thing he thought. Barely containing his curiosity he sat quietly and waited for what was going to happen next. Having raised five boys his mother was accustomed to scrapes and bruises and usually took them calmly in stride. On her sons anyway; perhaps seeing a bad bruise on a woman was unusual and alarming to her.

"Thank you, Annie," Adam said moments. "Please have a seat where I can listen to your heart and take your blood pressure. Then I'll be done. The bruising is extensive; but you knew that already didn't you?"

"Yeah, I looked in the mirror this morning when I took my shower," Annie admitted as she pulled out the chair to Auggie's right and sat down in it.

"Adam?" Auggie asked no longer able to contain his concern for his wife.

"In a minute, bro. Let me finish here and then I'll tell you what you want to know," Adam said as he patted his brother on the shoulder and then sat his bag on the table.

After a few minutes Adam continued, "Heart, lungs and BP are all within normal limits for a healthy young woman. Annie's wrist is obviously injured, but not broken. The bruised area is large and the bruising deep, but I'm not concerned about that anymore. Now, I have to go and call both Livvie and Jenna, but not necessarily in that order."

Adam moved off toward the family room; Auggie got up to follow him. Once in the family room Auggie cornered his brother. "Adam, I want to know just how badly hurt my wife is. Tell me. From Mom's reaction I got the impression … She told me it was nothing."

"The bruising on her hip is large and deep. It's going to take a long time to heal. Here, I'll show you how large the bruised area is." Adam closed the gap between him and his brother and began to trace an outline on Auggie's lower left abdomen. "That's the area that Annie's bruise covers. You're a bit bigger so the exact dimensions aren't the same, but that's approximately the same percentage of her body it covers. She has some on her left arm, too – upper forearm and elbow. And a smaller one on her right elbow, too."

Adam stepped away and began to make a phone call.

"Thanks, Adam," Auggie said softly. He was grateful that Adam seemed to tell him the truth this time. In the past his older brother had seemed to sugar coat things when he'd had to give him less than pleasant news. "Is that everything, Adam? Does the amount of bruising pose a health threat? Clots? Something like that?"

"Just a minute, Jenna," Adam said. "I need to talk to Auggie for a moment. No, Auggie, as extensive as it is that bruising does not poses a health risk to her at all. Just going to look ugly and take a long time to heal. She's probably not going to want to prance around in a bikini for the rest of the summer. And I see no signs that she's broken any ribs or other bones. She's fine, or more to the point, she will be fine once the soreness works out."

"Okay. Thanks."

"You heard that, Jenna. Annie's fine, just going to have that bad bruise for a while. Sore wrist, but it's just lightly sprained. She didn't hurt herself too bad. It could have been so much worse. … Yeah, I will. See you later. … Auggie?"

Auggie wasn't sure his brother was finished on the phone. He didn't respond until Adam touched him on the arm and spoke his name again. "Yeah?"

"You didn't know any of that did you?"

Auggie shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Not specific details. She told me her hip was bruised and that it was nothing. Some things I have to take her word on."

"I understand, bro," Adam said and once again touched Auggie on the arm. "She might have downplayed it to keep you from worrying. Or maybe she does think it's nothing."

"I don't know. I'm just upset that she didn't tell me how big the bruised area was. Makes me wonder what else she's not told me in the past. I don't care why she might have kept things from me; I just care that she might have. Or has. I have to trust people more than others might. I've …"

His mother's voice coming from the kitchen interrupted Auggie's rant. "August, are you and Adam about finished out there? I'm about ready to drop the pancakes on the griddle."

He was hungry and decided his harangue over his wife's word game could wait until he was fed. Auggie moved from the middle of the family room toward the kitchen. As he rounded the corner from family room into kitchen, he stated, "Yes. For once I think I got a straight answer out of my doctor brother. I'm not too happy with my wife for not telling me how badly bruised she was, but I guess I'll get over that."

"I told you I was sore and a bit bruised," Annie countered as Auggie found and took his seat at the table.

"No. When I asked you said, and I quote here, 'I have a bit of a bruise on my hip, but it's nothing.' A bruise that covers almost a third of your torso is not 'nothing'. It's something. If I wasn't so relieved that you only have a bruise and not gunshot wounds I'd …"

From the front hallway a male voice said, "Mrs. Anderson, if you'd come examine the cleanup job we've done for you, we'll get out of here."

"I'll be just few minutes. I'll finish breakfast when I get back. August, I do not want to have to break up a marital spat when I do return. Understood?"

"Yes, Mom." Auggie sighed in frustration. He would comply, begrudgingly, with his mother's request. Anything he had to say right now was sure to lead to a loud discussion of his wife's marital ethics.

"You'd what?" Annie said. Auggie recognized the teasing quality of his wife's tone.

"I'd turn you over my knee," Auggie replied in all seriousness; he would like to do just that – turn his wife over his knee. "But you might just like that," he retorted moments later; he suspected she just might like that as a bit of foreplay.

"I might," Annie whispered into her husband's ear as she passed him on her way into the kitchen proper. Auggie heard Annie test the grill with a few drops of water and then he smelled the pancakes being made. A small portion of his mind wondered if she was taking over to try to soften his ire. Or did she really not take his outrage seriously? Underestimate the level of his anger?

"Auggie, do you want maple or blueberry syrup?" Annie asked a few minutes later.

"Do you have to ask?" Auggie replied. Blueberry syrup was the only thing he liked on his blueberry pancakes and she knew it.

"Not really. Maple it is," Anne stated.

"Annie!" He wasn't at all certain that his wife was teasing. Hungry and getting a bit testy he wasn't about to take a chance of having his blueberry pancakes ruined.

"Auggie!" Annie whispered as she placed the plate in front of her husband. "Do you want me to finish fixing for you? Or do you want to do for yourself?"

"Well, my trust level in you sort of just took a ding. I'll do it myself. Could I have a wet towel please?" Auggie held out his left hand for the hoped for towel.

"Here's the wet towel, and here's the blueberry syrup," Annie said quietly. She paused long enough between placing the damp cloth in his hand to handing him the syrup that he had time enough to place it to the side of his plate. "Pancakes are slightly to the 9 o'clock side of center and the sausage links take up the rest of the space," Annie advised in her usual manner.

Annie moved away from the table and his mother approached from the hallway.

"That was a bit harsh," Abigail whispered as she passed her son.

Auggie didn't reply as he concentrated on fixing his pancakes – his right hand held the syrup pitcher and his left ghosted over the top of his stack of pancakes as he poured the warm syrup over his fingers to judge where, and how much, syrup he was pouring. Once he'd finished doing that and wiping off his fingers with the damp napkin, he responded to his mother. "Mom, this just got me to thinking what else she's kept from me because I can't see it. Sometimes she'll leave gifts for me out in plain sight if I could see, but that's little stuff. Insignificant stuff. How badly she's hurt isn't little nor insignificant. She should have told me, shown me, this morning. I knew she was hurt, I wanted to know how badly and she blew it off as 'nothing'." Not caring that Annie would hear he made no attempt to keep the conversation between him and his mother.

"Maybe to her it is?"

"Maybe. But I still would have liked to know the extent and size of the bruising."

"I'm sorry, Auggie," Annie said. "It was the first time, and it will be the last."

Auggie shrugged his shoulders and stabbed at the 3 o'clock side of his plate. He was rewarded with a link of the sausage. After eating a bite he said, "That remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

Further discussion between Annie and Auggie was prevented when the phone in Auggie's pocket began to warble. "Damnit," he said as he fished it out of his pocket. He answered sharply, "Anderson." There was only one person that could be calling on that phone at this hour and place; he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to talk to his boss at the moment. All he really wanted to do was finish his meal.

"Are you able to talk?" Joan asked.

"I'm sitting here trying to eat my breakfast," Auggie replied.

"I take it that there are family members present. If so, say something that will indicate you're trying to get rid of me quickly."

"No, I don't care what's broken; I'm not flying back to DC to fix it," Auggie improvised while keeping to his cover story.

"Got that. Is Annie okay?"

"That's right."

"I need her to call me as soon as she can do so safely. I think that both of you are going to be okay. No need to change your plans."

"Okay, I'll see you Monday," Auggie responded cryptically and terminated the connection.

"Was that Joan?" Annie asked as soon as Auggie replaced his phone back in his pocket.

"Yeah. She wanted to know who of the crew back in DC might be able to handle something. Her first pick would have been mine, so we're good. I'll call back in a couple of hours to make sure that everything is going okay, but we don't have to cut our trip short."

After they'd eaten and cleared their plates from the table, Auggie pulled Annie aside and advised her, "Joan wants you to call her. She sounded concerned. I was in no position to do more than receive that message." Even though he didn't really want to, he kissed his wife lightly on the neck after he'd whispered his message in her ear.

"I'll find a way to excuse myself from the rest of you shortly," Annie whispered back. Then in a normal tone she asked, "Really, how big a ding did I put in your trust? I really didn't think. I thought that you'd be over protective of me if you knew. I was just trying to protect you from worrying about me."

Auggie couldn't help but notice the true contriteness in her statement. "I am still a bit upset with you, but it will pass. If I'd known … I'm sorry if I hurt you this morning."

"You didn't hurt me this morning – not that I noticed anyway." Annie kissed her husband and broke the embrace. "I've got to go freshen up a bit now. I'll be back in a few minutes to help you get things cleaned up here in the kitchen."

"Is everything all right?" Abigail asked.

"Yes, Mom, everything is alright. I just need to brush my teeth. I'll be back down in a few minutes."

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><p><strong>Hope to see you all again next Thursday for the next installment. It, and the next one, are ready but waiting for Mandy58 to get back from vacation so she can do her thing with them. In one we get a completely different person's reaction to Annie and Auggie. <strong>


	10. An Unwelcomed Visitor

**Once again this chapter is a collaboration of the minds. Mandy58 and fbobs have both contributed to it; one more than the other, but both have contributed to it. They know how much I appreciate their input.**

**And, once again I write for my own personal pleasure and have no affiliation with the reel 'Covert Affairs'. I'm just as eager for the beginning of season 3 as the rest of you.**

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><p><strong>Annie Anderson<strong>

Annie paused for a few moments to survey the work the clean-up crew had done in the living room and foyer – there were still subtle signs, but only if one knew where to look, that a copious amount of blood had been shed in the foyer – the paint did need some touchup where it had been scrubbed, and she could see where Abigail might want to have the area rug replaced. It was still on the floor and damp from the cleaning but a shadow of the bloodstain still remained. In the living room she could see where the carpet had been cleaned where she'd bled all over it, but, once it dried, it looked like it would be okay. She was glad for that at least. The stains on the rug in the foyer looked as if they could be from where her heel had bled. That made her a trifle uncomfortable.

Once she'd taken stock of the situation in the foyer, Annie climbed the stairs to the guest bathroom. She took her time brushing her teeth; giving herself a bit of time to collect her thoughts before calling Joan. Even though she didn't think she had anything to worry about with Joan, one never quite knew where one stood with her. Joan pretty much always had an agenda. Sometimes it was a surprise, sometimes it wasn't, but Annie knew she was always one hundred percent behind her agents and would move heaven and earth for their safety if she had to. She would do the same to protect their covers. At this point, with no clue about any other agenda, or even any real hint of her next assignment, if Joan even knew, she decided there wasn't much else to do but call her.

Since it was the next morning, Annie had to assume Joan had talked to FBI Agent Parker, or at least gotten a message from her. Knowing Joan, it would have been a phone call.

Annie took a deep breath and slowly let it out before she exited the bathroom and went back into the bedroom. She pulled out her phone, listened to confirm there wasn't anybody in the hallway, and pressed the speed dial for Joan.

"Annie," Joan answered, "How are you? Physically? Mentally?"

"Hi, Joan, I'm physically okay. Not 100% since I have rather extensive deep bruising on my left hip. It looks pretty ugly and covers almost a third of my front left torso. I have some more bruising on my right arm and my right wrist is really sore. But Adam, Auggie's oldest brother and a doctor, checked me out this morning and said, other than probably not wanting to wear a bikini for a while, and being sore, I'll be back to 100% eventually." Annie paused, and, not hearing anything from Joan, she continued, "Mentally, I'm fine. For now. These guys had evil intent; I kept them from accomplishing it."

"Tell me what happened – what they did and what you did."

"They waited till my sister-in-law, Jenna, had the locks undone, then they shouldered the door open with considerable force. Somehow the lead guy got Jenna turned around, an arm around her neck, banged the muzzle of his pistol into her temple and shouted something, I'm not exactly sure what he said. By then all I saw was him, his gun, and Jenna. When his gun waved toward the living room I charged down the stairs at him, hit him with a palm strike into the chest, continued to body slam him back into the two guys behind him, jammed his gun out of battery with my left hand, took it away, smashed his larynx with it, smashed it again with my right elbow, grabbed the gun with my right hand in a firing position, and, as he was falling, I reached around him to shoot the other two who were trying to bring their rifles up.

"The two I shot landed on the floor either dead or about dead. The third one was gurgling in his throat. I kept them covered, cleared the front as well as I could from where I stood, backed up to sit on the stairs. When the police cars pulled up I put the gun down in front of me. They have it. It's the only thing they have that has my fingerprints on it. They didn't print either Auggie or I."

"Just so you know, the third guy died of his injuries early this morning. He had a cracked sternum and a couple of broken ribs, one of which poked a big hole in his lung. Apparently your palm strike broke things up and the body slam used the sharp ends against him. Auggie trained you well."

"Joan, I just wanted to stop them."

"I know. Not your fault. Not one single thing about this was your fault. I'm incredibly proud of you Annie. I quite frankly didn't know how effective you could be."

"The first guy had a Glock 19. I didn't know that when I took it away from him, I learned that after it was all over. I knew it was a Glock of some kind when I went at him. There is a time there when that's all I saw. But they all sort of look alike to me."

"The other two?"

"They had what look like generic AR15 rifles, not sure what makes. They looked identical. They both had a rail under the front hand guard with a laser sight on it. That registered somewhere in my mind at the time, but I didn't learn until later that the laser sights were turned on. They had what looked like thirty round magazines in them."

"What were they wearing?"

"Dark jeans, dark hoodies, surgical gloves on their hands. No masks or facial coverings at all. Auggie said he thought they intended to leave no witnesses."

"That was my conclusion as well." Joan paused again, and then continued in a new direction, "How about your covers?"

"As far as I know, we're good. Auggie's family is sort of bought in to the cover story, except for Alan, the Marine. He's been read in since before Auggie was blinded. Anthony, the brother that is a Chicago Assistant District Attorney is really suspicious, and pretty much has it figured out but he won't challenge me openly, and Auggie has already reinforced our cover story to him. Anthony has been wonderful. He got right between the detective, Lynch I think, and us and kept him in line."

"What did the detective do to need containing?"

"He started asking leading questions of Alan that were a barely veiled attempt to attribute other than self-defense motives to me. Alan shut him down. He tried to be intimidating but Anthony backed him off. I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up again. The man has an agenda, and something Special Agent Parker said, lead me to believe both she and Anthony know what it is. But I didn't ask and they didn't say."

"If he shows up and gets in your face, you or Auggie call me immediately. That's an order."

"I will do that."

"Tell me about Special Agent Parker."

"She was great. She is like Mighty Mouse. Cool, competent, professional, with no trace of the bureaucratic BS that seems to be Rossabi's stock in trade. She was in our corner the whole time. The Detective tried to get in her way and she was around and beyond him before he could breathe. She walked in, took control, and made it look easy. She had a gag order for everybody and their brother; anyone who might have seen anything or might have anything to do with processing the scene or the evidence. She served it to them, on their chief, and gave a copy to Auggie's family. I frankly did not read it. I was in moderate to severe adrenaline shock, quite literally passed out in bed when it was all over and everybody had left. I just couldn't handle the letdown. I didn't wake up till this morning. But if you need it, I'll get a copy of it to you."

"No need, I already have it. I talked briefly last night with Agent Parker; apparently right after she left you. Her complete report was on my desk this morning. She gave me the same story you did which is good. I'm not checking on you Annie, I just want to make sure she got the same picture of the event you thought you gave her, and she did."

"Good."

"She was also very complementary of you and Auggie. Said you were about as excitable as a sack of cement and apparently some sort of blonde Rambo. Enough of that, there were kids there I understand?"

"Yes, two of Auggie's nieces – Alexis and Megan – and two of his nephews – Lucas and Ethan. They're all between twelve and sixteen I think. The two girls are Adam's children and the boys are Anthony's. The oldest nephew wasn't here. Neither were the two youngest nieces."

"How did they take it?"

"I think okay. They looked at me somewhat wide-eyed, a little like I was Wonder Woman or something."

"They are my biggest concern," Joan said. "They need counseling even if nobody thinks they do. You need to let them know defending themselves is a fair and just response to evil doers. But the power of knowing the moves is that it is a surprise to everybody including the bad guys if you ever need to use them."

"I understand, and I'll do what I can to see they get counseling. The cleanup of the main scene is nearing completion. A rug was wrecked when I bled on it."

"I'm missing something here. What injuries did you have that bled?"

"I gouged a wound in the palm of my left hand when I jammed the slide on his Glock out of battery so it wouldn't fire, and a small gash on one heel when I kicked the AR's away from the two I shot. Auggie's brother Adam, the doctor, and his wife, a nurse, bandaged my hand, it's fine. I feel a little like I was run over by a truck, but it isn't interfering with anything."

"You are convinced these guys were just thrill killers who picked the house at random?"

"I don't know if they picked it at random, there were a lot of expensive cars out front and alongside the house, but I don't see any evidence they were after Auggie and I as targets if that is what you are asking."

"It is. Thanks. Auggie agrees?"

"Yes, we talked about that last night with Alan where the others couldn't hear us. Alan agrees, they were thrill seekers who, it appears, had intended to up their game."

"Annie, I think you saved everybody in the house, including yourself, from a horrible tragedy. The world, it would seem, is a better place without those young men. I will arrange for counseling when you get back. I can get some for you there if you feel you need it; we have people on call in every major city, pretty much worldwide."

"I'm okay for now. I know it will bother me more in a few days, especially after I get back in my own bed and dream about it going wrong, but for now, I'm okay. Same person as after Stockholm?"

"I can do that." Joan paused, and then said with apparent sincerity and appreciation, "Annie, well done. See you when you get back. If anybody gives you any static, you call me and I'll make it stop so fast you will wonder if it was a dream."

"Thanks Joan." And the call ended.

Annie sat on the edge of the bed holding the phone, releasing the inevitable tension from talking to Joan. She was right in my corner, Annie thought, and that's good, but I still feel like I'm on some sort of trial when I talk to her. Playing the conversation back in her head she finally decided, it couldn't have gone much better than that. Cool. Back to the holiday. Let's enjoy the day. She stood up, slid the phone in her pocket, brushed her jean shorts, gave herself a quick check in the mirror, and headed back down stairs.

She arrived down stairs to find the kitchen starting to get more crowded. Austin and Jenna had arrived; so had Olivia and the girls. Everyone was standing around the kitchen with coffee or orange juice in their hands. Annie was deciding how to approach Auggie when there was a knock on the front door accompanied by a shouted, "Glencoe Police Department." The voice was familiar from last night, but Annie wasn't sure if it was Sergeant Jamison or Detective Lynch.

Abigail was the first to react. "What now? Why can't these people go chase bad guys and leave us alone?"

Closest to the door Annie advised, "I'll get it Mom."

Suddenly the house got dead quiet; the tension was palpable as Annie walked in her bare feet to the door. She undid the locks and cracked the door just far enough that she could see the person on the front porch. It was Detective Lynch. She called to Auggie just loud enough for him to hear in the dead silent house, "Have your phone handy, it's Detective Lynch." She didn't care if the detective heard that comment or not. He was not going to bully anyone today. She really wished that Anthony was in the back. Or, better yet, Agent Parker.

"Detective Lynch, are you alone?" Annie asked as she turned her attention back to the unwelcomed visitor on the front porch. She looked him up and down; he looked as if he'd been through the wringer. His suit was rumpled, his hair a bit disheveled, and his eyes were puffy and a bit bloodshot.

"Yes."

Annie opened the door but didn't move to let him in. She said, "Good morning Detective Lynch, long night I see?"

Lynch looked concerned and said, "Yes, it was. I am on my way home. I just wanted to give you an update. We learned some things about the kids that invaded last night that you might like to know. But I can come back later if that's more convenient."

Annie looked at Abigail who was approaching down the hall and asked, "May I invite Detective Lynch in for a cup of coffee and a chance to update us on what he's learned from pulling an all-nighter on our behalf?"

Abigail nodded and said, "Sure, in the kitchen?" Annie couldn't help but notice the change in her mother-in-law's attitude from hostile to hospitable.

Annie said, "Come in, we've fresh coffee if you would like some."

"I'd love some. You are right; it's been a long night. The chief didn't take this case lightly and pulled in the personnel needed to process the evidence we'd gathered and to ID the perps," Detective Lynch advised as he followed Abigail down the hall toward the back of the house; he took the offered seat at the breakfast table, clearly tired.

Abigail handed the detective a mug of coffee and asked, "Sugar or cream?"

Everyone except Auggie had cleared the kitchen; he was leaning against the counter near the coffee maker. Annie could hear the others taking seats in the family room. She took a seat across the table from Detective Lynch.

"Just like it is works great." He took a sip with obvious pleasure and said, "We've identified the invaders from last night; they are street punks from the Chicago's South Side. The weapons they had – the rifles – came from one of their first home invasions. The Glock was stolen from a pawnshop about six months ago. We went to several of the other victims already this morning and showed pictures of their faces to them. We got pretty conclusive ID's linking them to at least four other rather violent home invasions. Their fingerprints weren't at the other scenes, but we're pretty convinced that the home invasions will now stop. They had been escalating; last night was the first they hadn't gone to the trouble of disguising themselves. They went to some trouble to disguise their faces in earlier invasions, but not last night." He drank some more coffee and said, "Ms. Anderson, Annie, Sergeant Jamison is right, the evidence clearly shows your actions last night averted a major tragedy. We still don't condone civilians fighting back, but this time it worked out well for you here. We don't have a Manson Family style massacre on our hands, and we've come close to closing several troubling cases. … I was a bit of a jerk last night. I apologize. I'm bringing this information as a peace offering."

Annie said, "Accepted Detective. And thank you. We were all under a lot of stress last night."

Detective Lynch took a final sip of his coffee, stood and offered Annie his hand saying, "Pleasure to meet you. I think we're done. We've been able to keep your names out of the press coverage, but I'm not sure we were as successful at keeping the address or the names of the owners of the house from the coverage, unfortunately. I'm not sure that press or TV media will leave you alone. We pressed on them the need for your privacy. We'll just have to see how well they listened. If it gets too out of hand let us know. Now I need to get some sleep before I fall down."

Abigail said, "Thanks Detective. I'll show you out." And they left in the direction of the front door.

As soon as Abigail and the detective were out of the room, Auggie sauntered over to where Annie sat. "You buying his change in stance?" Auggie asked quietly as he took the seat the detective had just vacated.

"I think so," Annie replied. "He seemed sincere enough. Or did you hear something in his voice that I didn't pick up on?"

Auggie turned his head slightly to the left and lifted that shoulder, "No. I just heard a tired man. I wish Tony was here. I'm sure he'd have something to say about this."

"Yeah, I'm sure he would," Annie agreed. "I'll say something to him when he gets here. Something he and Agent Parker said last night gave me the impression there's something more to Detective Lynch than meets the eye."

"When was this discussion between Ms. Parker and Tony? I don't remember it," Auggie remarked.

"Oh, that's right you weren't there. It was right after she got here and was taking charge from the detective. I'd followed her because I was curious about how that was going to go. She knew Tony from a meeting he'd had with her boss over something happening in the Glencoe PD. Made it sound like they were investigating Detective Lynch for witness intimidation. After how he went after Alan last night it might be true."

Another key opening the backdoor got Annie's attention. Anthony and Jessica soon appeared in the kitchen. Between them they carried a large cooler. "Morning, all," Anthony announced cheerfully. "The party can begin, we've come bearing beer, and other barbecue eats." Then in a more confidential tone that was directed at Auggie, "Cooler going to the left side of the patio doors."

Auggie nodded his acknowledgement of his brother's statement. Annie offered a brief smile at her brother-in-law to show her appreciation of his letting her husband know of the placement of out of the ordinary objects in the house. Auggie had said that his brothers hadn't always been so accommodating.

When Anthony came back in from depositing the cooler by the patio door to get a mug of coffee, Annie advised him, "Detective Lynch stopped by this morning and just left a bit ago. He apologized for being a bit over zealous last night. Should we believe that he's really contrite and we've seen the last of him?"

"I thought that was him leaving as we pulled up. What did he have to say?" Anthony asked cautiously.

"Just that he and the department's forensic team spent an all-nighter looking at the evidence, IDing the guys, and coming to the conclusion that I'd acted in self-defense and averted a Manson-style blood bath. He was quite apologetic for doubting me. From something I overheard between you and Agent Parker I had the feeling that you'd investigated him for intimidation."

"We interviewed him, but the investigation wasn't aimed at him per se. I think he's okay and was just having a hard time reconciling that a woman foiled a home invasion without being lying in wait and armed. I was here and I had a bit of a challenge wrapping my head around it. But I think we've probably seen the last of him. I doubt that there's not going to be a hearing or court case. Case closed. No need for him to question us again."

# # #

After freshening up a bit in the downstairs bath and getting a new can of Diet Pepsi, Annie came back out on the deck overlooking the back patio and yard to rejoin the family BBQ that was in progress. The steaks and burgers on the grill smelled mouthwateringly good. Adam was manning the grill and Olivia was sitting beside him on the deck; Alan and Auggie were off to one end of the patio with their feet up on one of the low wrought iron coffee table type benches; everyone else was spread out lounging in clusters around the deck, patio and yard. Holding the fresh Diet Pepsi and drinking straight from the can Annie enjoyed the frosty beverage and considered some more of the tortilla chips and incredible homemade salsa Jenna had brought. It looked to her like everybody was out here. This new family she'd become a part of sure knew how to enjoy each other and a holiday.

It was nearing 6 PM and the family had been together since before Noon. The conversation had long ago stopped centering on the events of last night and any potential aftermath from them. Detective Lynch's update, delivered with an apology, had gone a long ways to answer questions and foster acceptance of what had happened. Annie was really glad of that. She was also glad the bruises didn't show when she wore the shorts she'd brought for the occasion and the shorts were comfortable enough that they didn't irritate her bruised areas. She wore a soft cotton T-shirt for comfort not oblivious to the fact that it flattered her figure.

The tone of the conversations – not understanding them, just listening to them – felt really good. Annie felt like she could finally relax, last night was going to be behind her soon. She moved down into the yard along the side near the gate in the tall privacy fence where she saw Alfred and Abigail talking to Alexis and Megan, their eldest granddaughters. Annie smiled in their direction, the two girls were so animated and energetically happy it was contagious. Annie wanted some of that, so she turned in that direction to join them.

She had no more than gotten there when she thought she heard a voice around the front of the house. She listened again and thought she'd made a mistake with all the conversations going on. She turned to Megan who was so excited about some new music group that Annie had never heard of and was about to get an explanation of when the side gate into the driveway area started to rattle. That unexpected noise put Annie on high alert – condition red as she'd been taught – and then the gate burst open to reveal a big man who looked extremely agitated and upset.

He yelled out, "Which one of you sons-of-bitches killed my son? Who did it? I want to rip off your head you miserable scum."

His gaze took in everyone for a moment and then focused on Alfred. It was obvious to Annie he was about to attack and that her father-in-law was the likely target and he would be badly hurt if that angry man did attack him. She went in motion with that look, but everybody's gaze was on the intruder so they missed her anticipation of the blow. When the unwelcomed visitor stepped forward to take a swing at Alfred it suddenly all went wrong for him.

Annie, already in motion, slid around Alfred to deflect the incoming blow so that the man's own momentum started to work against him. Half turning while pulling his arm down she side-kicked his knee closest to her out from under him and kept him turning so he rolled up over her back and was slammed down onto the grass face first. He collapsed onto his stomach with his arm off to one side. Quick as a cat Annie had his other arm twisted up around behind his head with her arm wrapped around his throat leveraging her arms toward each other bending his head back and making it hard for him to breathe. The arm hold was designed to cause him enough pain to take his mind off everything but making it stop and being able to breathe.

Annie yelled, "Austin! Alan! Adam! Somebody bring me something to tie this guy up with. Zip ties would be great but they need to be thick and long." She knew the guy couldn't get away, but she also knew she wasn't doing herself any good either and wanted this to be over soon. She stayed focused on the man on the ground paying particular attention to his free hand; whenever it moved she'd increase the pressure knowing the pain in his shoulder had to be excruciating. He wasn't complaining, he just kept cursing, struggling and threatening to kill her as soon as he was free.

After a few seconds of this, she wrenched hard on his arm, shouted in his ear, "Shut up or I'll leave you with an arm that won't work at all." She gave it a wrench that finally made him cry out in pain to emphasize her point. "You get loose and I'll have to kill you before you get up because you are too big for me to fight. Now lie quietly before I have to do permanent damage." He tried to grab at her once more with his free hand but Annie wrenched hard one more time hearing some crunching noises in his shoulder. Finally he stopped struggling and began sobbing and swearing quietly, perfectly filthy language, but he was no longer struggling.

"Who are you and how did you find us?" Annie snarled at him. When he didn't immediately answer, she once again applied pressure to his shoulder. "Answer me!"

"On a news broadcast early this morning. I only heard it once, but once was enough. No name was given just the block and street name. Bits of crime scene tape led me to this house," the man said between intakes of air.

Austin arrived with some big black zip ties. Annie said, "I'm going to have my brother-in-law here help me zip tie your hands behind you and to your belt; then you will lay right where you are till the police get here. If you struggle, you will go to the hospital. Got it?"

The man nodded.

Austin grabbed the intruder's free arm and, with some difficulty, was able to get in position to put the zip ties on like handcuffs without Annie releasing her grip. Then Annie used one to hook his wrists to his belt so he couldn't slip his feet through and get his hands in front of him; not that it looked like he was agile enough to do that.

That done, Annie stood up slowly, stepped over the fallen man to look out the gate, saw no one else but left the gate open so the police would be able to find them. Satisfied the area was clear and secure, she moved to a position where she could watch the man but he couldn't see her. She began to tune in the conversations going on behind her. Out of the corner of her eye Annie saw Auggie trying to make his way toward her. "Megan, go help your Uncle Auggie over here, please."

Megan didn't take her eyes from her aunt. Annie noticed Austin slip away toward his brother. A few moments later Auggie was at her side. He reached out to locate her. "Annie, please tell me straight, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

With the morning's tiff still fresh in her mind, and even though she was still slightly angry with him for his snarky comment from that morning, Annie said, "Auggie, I don't think so. But until the adrenaline works out of me, I won't know for sure. He didn't hit me but it took all the strength I had to get him over me to the ground in that interception move you taught me a year or so ago. It worked great. He's all of two-hundred-and-eighty pounds and a good six feet tall with arms like hams but he never landed a punch."

Alfred came up behind Auggie and said, "Auggie, he launched a huge punch at my face but somehow Annie got between me and him, deflected it, pushed me out of her way, and turned it into a takedown. It was like magic or something. Annie this was apparently nothing compared to what you did last night, but I saw this. Or I think I did, and it was pretty awesome to me."

"Oh my God, to me too," said Megan with Alexis hanging onto her arm staring at Annie in wide-eyed wonder – like the girls were looking at some kind of rock star.

Annie said, "Girls, we will talk about this later, I promise, but for the moment, please move back. Everybody, let's keep a bit of a clear area around this guy. I'm going to have him stay right where he is and I'm going to stand here behind him where he can't see me to keep him there. Trust me on this; he won't succeed in getting up if he even tries."

Alfred and Abigail moved back a couple of steps and Abigail said, "I called 911 … again. They seemed to know the address by heart. I may have to put them on my Christmas list. In any event, I hear a siren that is getting louder so I think they got the message."

Alan, who had been sitting on the far side of the yard resting his foot when the event happened and once again had an almost unobstructed view of Annie's counter attack, had hobbled up onto the deck where Adam and Olivia were sitting. When he got situated on there he called to Auggie, "Hey, bro, got a beer for a Marine?"

Auggie said to Annie, "You got this." It was a statement.

She said, "Yup. No problem. I'll just stay right here till those policemen come and take him away. Hopefully, since he isn't injured enough to require hospitalization – at least I don't think so – the statements will go very quickly. Compared to last night, this is a bump in the night."

Auggie let Austin guide him toward the deck.

The sirens stopped out front. Anthony went to meet the officers from the patrol car and brought them to the back yard. An older officer, who seemed to be in charge, after surveying the man on the ground, asked, "Which of you guys took him down?"

Alfred said quietly, "None of us guys. She did." He pointed at Annie. "She stopped him from hitting me, put him on the ground and controlled him till we could get zip ties to hold his hands. He has been lying there swearing and sobbing now and then since."

"Let me start from the beginning, what happened? You first young lady," the officer said looking at Annie.

Annie said, "I thought I heard a shout near the front of the house but there was a lot of conversation going on at the party back here. Then that gate opened and this guy came in shouting something about which one of us killed his son, threatening to kill whoever had, and he took a punch at my father-in-law, Fred Anderson."

"You don't look like you got punched," the officer said looking hard at Alfred.

"I didn't. She slid in between the two of us, did something really quick and ninja like, pushed me out of the way, and next thing I knew he was on the ground and she had him in some sort of hold that kept him there. He didn't want to be there, but he had zero choice."

The officer looked at Annie and was just about to say something when another voice boomed through the gate saying, "You do your Jason Bourne act again Ms. Anderson?" Annie's head snapped around to see Sergeant Jamison coming in to the yard.

The officer who had been questioning Annie looked at him and said, "You know these people Sarge?"

Jamison replied, "Yes, this is the house you heard about in the shift briefing where the three home invaders were … stopped. I was among the first responders to that one, too."

The officer's head snapped around, he looked at Annie wide-eyed and said, "Ohmygosh! You are _**her**_."

Sergeant Jamison said, "Yes, that's her. You should know there is a federal court gag order so I'm not going to tell you her name and you don't need to ask."

The officer stuttered and said, "Bu- bu- but, she's just a little squirt."

Jamison said, "Stop right there. We'll continue this conversation in about twenty years."

Then he turned to the man on the ground and said to the first officer and another who was just coming in the gate, "Okay. Let's get him on his feet and properly cuffed. Try not to let him escape. I'll book him on assault for now. Ms. Anderson, did he hurt you? Or anybody else here?"

"No sergeant, he never laid a finger on me. He seems to have been by himself so I just contained him till we could tie him up. I had to wrench a bit on his left shoulder and had him in a semi-choke hold so the shoulder and his throat may be a bit sore and bruised, but there shouldn't be any permanent injury. Can I bring my brother-in-law Anthony and father-in-law Fred with me to the side yard and give you a quick statement so we can get back to family fun and BBQ? I really don't want this to mess up this evening too. "

"I think that is exactly what we should do. You didn't even get worked up this time?"

"No, this was a piece of cake."

"Aunt Annie," Alexis said touching Annie on the arm. "I've got something that might help."

"What's that Alexis?" Annie asked softly.

"I was playing with the video recorder app on my phone. I don't think I have all the video of what he did, but I'm pretty sure I got the audio of it from the time he came through the gate and then video of you holding him down."

"You do?" Sergeant Jamison asked, taking a step toward the teenaged girl. "I've got a recorder in the patrol car. I'll let you play it so I can catch the audio of what happened and then I'll jot down an e-mail address where you can send the video. Sometimes we don't like people making videos, but I think this time it's a good thing. You okay with doing that?"

"Yeah. Sure," Alexis said brightly.

"Would you play it for me now?"

Alexis poked at her phone for a few seconds and held it up so he could see. The picture jumped around, but the guys voice came through. Out of what appeared to be pure happenstance Alexis had caught Annie's interception of the punch, the man hitting the ground face first, Annie landing her chest on his back scooping him into the hold to keep him there. When Austin had gotten the zip ties on him and Annie got up, the video ended.

When it was over, Jamison turned to Annie and said, "I couldn't do it last night, but I'd sure like to give you a high five now. That was awesome."

Annie grinned and they got it right with a good "WHACK" the first time. And then a bit of reality overcame Annie – she wasn't sure it was a good thing to have Alexis's video floating around.

Then the sergeant got back on task getting the statements, while Annie thought about how to get the video away from Alexis. And learning why she was even videoing her in the first place.

The statements went quickly as Annie concisely and accurately related for Jamison's recorder what happened while Anthony listened in. The sergeant then had Alexis play the video for him as he recorded it. After the video had been played again for the sergeant's recorder, Annie cautioned, "You know that this video falls under that federal gag order, don't you? Neither of you can share it with anyone, even if my name isn't used."

Sergeant Jamison nodded. "I'm fully aware of that. A copy of the federal order will be on the file that contains the video – if you allow it to be e-mailed to me – and as soon as it's not needed for anything it will mysteriously be lost. Erased. Deleted."

"Thanks," Annie replied. "It would not be good for either my husband or I if that got posted on YouTube or somewhere like that." Annie turned to Alexis and quietly asked gently, "Alexis, why were you videoing me?"

Alexis first looked alarmed and then shyly responded, "I started when you came out on the deck a bit ago. You move so gracefully that I wanted to video you so I could study the way you moved so that I could learn how to move like you do. I only wanted to study it; I never intended to share it with anyone."

"Okay. When we get a chance, I want to see you send it to the address that the sergeant gave you and then I have to insist on you deleting it off your phone. Even though I trust you not to share it, just knowing that someone might be alble to get ahold of your phone and look at it makes me very uncomfortable. I'm sorry Lexi, but I have to insist that you do that."

Alexis looked down at the ground and shuffled her feet slightly. "I'm sorry, Aunt Annie. I do it right now and not even send it to the officer if that's what you want."

Annie thought for a few moments and then said, "The officer is an adult and has a lot to lose if the federal gag order isn't obeyed. I think I'm okay with sending it on to him, but once it's sent I need it to be gone. Okay?"

Alexis poked at her phone again a few times, then keyed furiously on the keypad while looking at the card in her other hand. She handed her iPhone over to Annie. "Check to make sure that I've input the e-mail address correctly. I don't want to accidentally send it to the wrong place."

Annie carefully studied the card and then the iPhone screen. Everything looked the same. Sergeant Jamison took the phone from her.

"That's the correct address, Miss Alexis," Sergeant Jamison said and handed the phone back to the teenager.

Once again Alexis touched her phone's screen. The phone made a whooshing sound followed by a slight beep. "It's sent. Now I'll delete it Aunt Annie." The teenaged girl moved so that her aunt could see what she was doing on the phone. She touched the screen a few more times and then said, "I've deleted it."

After gently wrapping her arms around her niece, Annie said, "Thank you, Lexi. I know that was hard for you to do. But, you do understand that I wouldn't ask you to do that if it wasn't so important?"

"Yeah," Alexis said and nodded against her aunt's arm.

While Sergeant Jamison was taking the statements and the other things, the other officers Mirandized the party crasher and placed him in the patrol car. The first, older officer, came back with the guy's name and rap sheet and conveyed that to Sergeant Jamison.

Annie asked, "May I see that."

Sergeant Jamison hesitated and then said, "Sure, why not," and handed it to her. He said, "I can print another one, you keep that one."

Annie said, "Thanks Sergeant. I'd like to understand this guy that raised a son who wanted to kill people for an evening's entertainment."

When they were done Sergeant Jamison said, "Thanks to all of you. You made this easy. He's the father of one of the three boys, the first one through the door. He had a really bad night at the hospital and the boy died early this morning. Doesn't excuse what he did here, or what his son attempted to do last night. But it puts his actions today in context a little bit. He should be grateful you didn't put him in the hospital. He has a reputation as a bar room brawler that handles himself pretty well."

"I heard that the first boy through the door died this morning," Annie said softly. "I'm sorry about that. But, you're right it doesn't make what he did just now okay."

"How do you know that?" Sergeant Jamison asked in surprise. "You mean you knew before this guy came shouting you'd killed his son?"

Annie nodded, "I didn't know he was the kid's father. But, yeah. I'd been informed of that earlier today. How that information came to be known by me is need to know, and no one here needs to know." Annie looked sternly at each person around her and then continued, "This guy wasn't a lethal threat – at least not to me – I just did what I had to do to stop the attack on my father-in-law."

"You did him a favor not breaking his neck. Okay folks, we're out of here. Enjoy your barbeque." He tipped his cap toward Annie before he headed off down the drive to his waiting patrol car.

As they walked back, Alfred and Alexis went on ahead and Anthony stopped so that Annie stopped. He said, "I owe you my deepest heartfelt thanks, again, Annie. That guy would have hurt Dad badly if he'd landed that punch. Dad doesn't heal that fast any more, it would have been a serious blow to his life to have been beaten by that guy. "

"I wouldn't let that happen, Tony," Annie said quietly.

"I know. I was mean to Auggie when he was growing up, and I deeply regret it now. I am trying to earn his trust, have been for several years now. We're doing better. But I want you to know, I've got your back, both yours and his."

"I know you do," Annie said with a movement to head on back to the party. She needed to stop him if this went where she thought it was going.

"May I see that paper?" He quickly scanned it. "That guy has sometimes had to have three policeman to take him down in a bar. You are way too good, way too skilled, to be an amateur. I watched you take down that big guy – a big guy with a documented reputation as a bad ass bar room brawler – like having a sip of tea. No muss, no fuss, big guy on ground, and pass the large zip ties if you please. I may not get this right, and you don't have to react to- "

Annie quickly stepped close enough to put a finger to Anthony's lips, stopping his monolog in its tracks with her expression; she looked him right in the eyes, slowly shook her head and interjected still quietly but with some sadness in her voice, "Anthony, please don't." She could see him processing.

He looked at her for a long moment and said, "Okay, you have earned my respect. I'll honor your request."

Annie said, "Thank you," stepped back and then said, "You should be proud of your brother Tony. He taught me that move, and many, many, more. We were sparring partners for over two years before we were romantically involved, and we have been continuously ever since. A sparring session with your brother is like being in a train wreck. He's not a master in the conventional sense of fighting to win belts, performing Kata's with perfect form, though he has the belts. He's a master of surviving fights to the death. He's taught me all he knows, every way he knows, to end a fight with the first blow, no later than the second, and we continue to practice several times a week." She stepped back hoping he got the message. "Even though he is content in his life and work, there is a part of your brother that longs to be useful in sharing his skills. For a variety of reasons, I'm the only one he has to share them with."

"I'm not surprised. We brothers all know that if he gets his hands on us, he can take us; has been able to since he took up wrestling in high school. He became more able when he joined the military before Iraq, but I doubt that his being blind now has changed that." He paused, looked right at her and added, "Annie, I get it. I won't bring it up again. Look, you guys need anything, you call me, and I'll be there."

Annie looked at him for a few seconds then said, "I know that. Thank you. Now, let's get back in there, I'm starving," turned and preceded him back to the gate.

* * *

><p><strong>Next we rejoin the party. Will Annie have trouble explaining herself now that everyone has seen her in action?<strong>


	11. Alexis and Adam

**Here we get to see two previously unheard from participants. Hope you like them.**

**Once again I have to say that I write for my own pleasure and have no intentions to infringe on the reel 'Covert Affairs'.**

* * *

><p>Alexis Anderson<p>

Sixteen-year-old Alexis Anderson, eldest daughter of Adam and Olivia Anderson of Highland Park, Illinois, stood with her thirteen-year-old sister, Megan, in the back yard of her grandparent's Glencoe, Illinois home talking to her grandmother and grandfather. She found her grandparents to be interesting people. They tried to keep up with what their grandchildren were interested in. They had computers and smartphones and knew how to use Google to find topics that their grandchildren might be interested in talking about. At the moment her grandmother, Abigail, had her engaged in a discussion of a new music group that had just burst onto the music scene. Out of the corner of her eye, Alexis noticed her new Aunt Annie come out of the house and onto the deck. Her attention shifted from the discussion with her sister and grandmother to her Aunt Annie. Her mother and both of her other aunts, Jessica and Jenna, were beautiful women, but there was something about her Aunt Annie that had captivated Alexis from the first moment they'd met. She'd only met her newest aunt a few times, the last being when Annie had married her father's youngest brother, Auggie.

Alexis loved Auggie even though he'd been gone so much. He'd left for college, and then the Army when she was barely in kindergarten. Then he was home in uniform like Uncle Alan. And then he'd been hurt horribly in the war and had come home blind. That first time he'd been home, Alexis found him to be scary, quick to anger, and very defensive. Then he was gone, out of her life, out of everybody's lives, till he showed up with Aunt Annie. She remembered being almost shocked when she first saw her Aunt Annie with Auggie. Here was her Uncle Auggie with this stunning woman who moved with a casual balanced grace that just blew her away. Alexis remembered being skeptical at first. What was this woman doing with her Uncle Auggie, the blind war veteran? Was she taking advantage of him? Did she want money? What was the deal?

It took her about two minutes watching Annie's actions around Auggie to realize she was completely head over heels in love with her Uncle Auggie. And he with her. The wedding had been amazing. It was really the first one of her Uncle's weddings she had been old enough to really appreciate. She had cried for her Uncle Auggie not being able to see Annie coming down the aisle. She'd spent hours reading People Magazine, and seen wedding picture of celebrities; none of them could hold a candle to her new aunt's walk down the aisle with eyes shining and looking lovingly at her future husband.

To say her aunt had won Alexis love and respect would be an understatement. Then last night, they had been invaded by three people who had come to kill them, maybe torture and rape the women, including her, and it gave her a chill just thinking about it. But her totally awesome aunt had … had … killed them at the door before they could even get all the way in the house. Alexis shuddered and looked again at her aunt approaching with that way of moving she had.

After pulling her iPhone from her pocket, Alexis opened the camera app and switched it to video mode. She wanted a video of the way her Aunt Annie moved; so gracefully it was almost cat-like.

Alexis's attention was suddenly captured by noise at the nearby gate. A man, a big, rough looking man, burst through it shouting, "Which one of you sons-of-bitches killed my son? Who did it? I want to rip off your head you miserable scum." He scanned the family and then focused on her grandfather, Alfred. In horror she saw the man draw back his fist to strike her Grandpa; then her Aunt Annie was there between the men and deflecting the intended punch to her Grandpa's face. She watched in wide-eyed amazement as her tiny, sometimes fragile looking aunt, put the big man on the ground.

Beside her she heard her sister gasp – first in horror and then moments later in amazement. She heard her Granny call 911 and tell them someone had just tried to assault her husband. Then she heard her Aunt Annie yelling, "Austin! Alan! Adam! Somebody bring me something to tie this guy up with. Zip ties would be great but they need to be thick and long."

Finally remembering that she had the video recording app running on her phone, Alexis deliberately focused it on her Aunt Annie. Through the view screen she watched in disbelief as her aunt wrenched hard on the big man's arm and shouted at him, "Shut up or I'll leave you with an arm that won't work at all." Her aunt put more pressure on the man's arm and hissed in his ear, "You get loose and I'll have to kill you before you get up because you are too big for me to fight. Now lie quietly before I have to do permanent damage." Finally the angry man stopped struggling, but he was spewing out curses in a tone and with words that Alexis had never heard before and hoped never to hear again.

Totally in awe of her aunt, Alexis continued to watch, mouth agape and eyes wide, as Annie interrogated the prone man. "Who are you and how did you find us?" When he didn't immediately answer, her aunt once again applied pressure to the man's shoulder. "Answer me!"

"On a news broadcast early this morning. I only heard it once, but once was enough. No name was given just the block and street name. Bits of crime scene tape led me to this house," the man said between intakes of air.

Austin arrived with some big black zip ties and Aunt Annie told the man, "I'm going to have my brother-in-law here help me zip tie your hands behind you and to your belt; then you will lay right where you are till the police get here. If you struggle, you will go to the hospital. Got it?"

The man nodded.

Austin grabbed the intruder's free arm and, with some difficulty, was able to get in position to put the zip ties on like handcuffs without Aunt Annie releasing her grip. Then Annie used one to hook his wrists to his belt. When her aunt stood and stepped away from the man on the ground, Alexis stopped the recording.

From where she stood, eyes transfixed on her Aunt Annie, Alexis could also see her Uncle Auggie trying to make his way to where his wife was. For the first time that day, Alexis was painfully aware that her Uncle Auggie was blind. The last few times she'd seen him he'd managed so well it was sometimes easy to forget that he couldn't see; right now the fact that he could not have seen what had happened was heartbreakingly obvious – he'd stumbled over the edging to one of the flowerbeds. The look on his face Alexis could only describe as panicked. Annie must have seen her husband trying to get to her because she commanded, "Megan, go help your Uncle Auggie over here, please."

Megan didn't take her eyes from her aunt. Alexis was about ready to nudge her sister, or go to her uncle's aid when she noticed Uncle Austin slip away toward his brother. A few moments later Uncle Auggie was at his wife's side. He reached out to locate his wife in a manner that must have reassured him because some of the panicked look left him, but he asked, with a bit of desperation in his tone, "Annie, please tell me straight, are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Without taking her gaze from the man on the ground, Annie replied, "Auggie, I don't think so. But until the adrenaline works out of me, I won't know for sure. He didn't hit me but it took all the strength I had to get him over me to the ground in that interception move you taught me a year or so ago. It worked great. He's all of two-hundred-and-eighty pounds and a good six feet tall with arms like hams but he never landed a punch."

Alexis wanted to move away, to give the adults, especially Aunt Annie and Uncle Auggie, a bit of space to do the adult things they needed to do, but she, and her little sister, stayed riveted in place. Even when her grandfather moved to stand behind his son, Alexis couldn't seem to move; she was awestruck by the whole incident.

"Auggie," Alfred said, touching his son on the shoulder, "he launched a huge punch at my face but somehow Annie got between me and him, deflected it, pushed me out of her way, and turned it into a takedown. It was like magic or something. Annie this was apparently nothing compared to what you did last night, but I saw this. Or I think I did, and it was pretty awesome to me."

"Oh my God, to me too," Alexis gushed. Her sister, still hanging onto her arm and staring at Annie in wide-eyed wonder, echoed the sentiment.

"Girls, we will talk about this later, I promise, but for the moment, please move back," Annie said looking straight at Alexis. "Everybody, let's keep a bit of a clear area around this guy. I'm going to have him stay right where he is and I'm going to stand here behind him where he can't see me to keep him there. Trust me on this; he won't succeed in getting up if he even tries."

From her aunt's tone of voice it was clear to Alexis that she was in charge and clearly expected to be obeyed. Half-dragging her little sister with her, Alexis moved a few feet away. She took in the whole scene now, and was even more awestruck by the contrast between the large man on the ground and the petite woman who had put him there. All Alexis could think was, I want to be just like her. I want to be able to do something like that if someone ever threatens me or someone I love. I want to be in charge of my own safety like she is. She isn't afraid of anybody. That is about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Alexis's grandfather and grandmother moved back a couple of steps and her grandmother, somewhat cheerily, said, "I called 911 … again. They seemed to know the address by heart. I may have to put them on my Christmas list. In any event, I hear a siren that is getting louder so I think they got the message."

Still focused on the small circle of people gathered around the man that had arrived, uninvited, to the family gathering, Alexis was brought back to the fact that there were other people around when her Uncle Alan yelled, "Hey, bro, got a beer for a Marine?"

Uncle Auggie smiled slightly and remarked to his wife, "You got this." It was not a question but a clear statement. Alexis couldn't help but wonder if her Uncle Alan had specifically addressed her Uncle Auggie with his request for a beer, but she thought that her Uncle Auggie had taken it that way. He seemed much more at ease and reached to his side for Austin's arm.

Then in a moment approaching an epiphany Alexis thought, Uncle Auggie wasn't surprised she could do what she just did. She knew he wasn't surprised. He was only concerned the guy hadn't hurt her. Then she remembered vaguely Aunt Annie saying Uncle Auggie had trained her. Her increasingly awesome blind uncle trained her equally awesome aunt.

In response to her husband's comment, Annie calmly replied, "Yup. No problem. I'll just stay right here till those policemen come and take him away. Hopefully, since he isn't injured enough to require hospitalization – at least I don't think so – the statements will go very quickly. Compared to last night, this is a bump in the night."

When the sirens stopped out front, Alexis realized that some very adult stuff was about to happen. Part of her was excited to be a part of that, another part was a bit nervous about maybe being questioned by the police. She'd never been close to anything like that. As far as she could remember, she'd never even been in the car when either of her parents had been stopped by an officer, just had heard them commenting on being pulled over for some traffic infraction.

She was aware that her Uncle Anthony had come over from where he'd been sitting with his wife, Aunt Jess, on the patio and slipped out of the open gate toward the front of the house. He came back a few minutes later followed by two uniformed patrol officers. One of them, a man who seemed to be her father's age, addressed the men, "Which of you guys took him down?"

Alfred said quietly, "None of us guys. She did." He pointed at Aunt Annie. "She stopped him from hitting me, put him on the ground and controlled him until we could get zip ties to hold his hands. He has been lying there cursing and sobbing now and then since."

To Alexis's eyes the officer looked shocked when her Grandpa had pointed at her Aunt Annie. She couldn't wait to see what happened next; she listened intently to the interaction between the adults and the police officer.

"Let me start from the beginning, what happened? You first young lady," the officer said looking at Aunt Annie.

Her aunt stated in a clear, confident tone, "I thought I heard a shout near the front of the house but there was a lot of conversation going on at the party back here. Then that gate opened and this guy came in shouting something about which one of us killed his son, threatening to kill whoever had, and he took a punch at my father-in-law, Fred Anderson."

"You don't look like you got punched," the officer said looking hard at Alfred.

"I didn't. She slid in between the two of us did something really quick and ninja like, pushed me out of the way, and next thing I knew he was on the ground and she had him in some sort of hold that kept him there. He didn't want to be there, but he had zero choice," Grandpa Alfred stated firmly.

Zero choice is right, thought Alexis at that moment. His destiny left his control when he threatened my grandfather with Aunt Annie close enough to stop him.

The officer looked at Annie and appeared as if he was just about to say something when another voice boomed through the gate saying, "You do your Jason Bourne act again Ms. Anderson?"

Alexis watched as her Aunt Annie's head snapped round and she got an almost pleased look when she caught sight of a third uniformed patrol officer entering the yard.

The officer who had been questioning Aunt Annie looked at him and said, "You know these people Sarge?"

The new officer replied, "Yes, this is the house you heard about in the shift briefing where the three home invaders were … stopped. I was among the first responders to that one, too."

The first officer's head snapped around, he looked at Aunt Annie wide-eyed and said, "Ohmygosh! You are her."

Yeah! Alexis thought. That's Her with a capital H. Meet Awesome Aunt Annie Mr. Policeman. Isn't she cool?

The newly arrived officer said, "Yes, that's her. You should know there is a federal court gag order so I'm not going to tell you her name and you don't need to ask."

The first officer stuttered and said, "Bu- bu- but, she's just a little squirt."

Alexis almost blurted out; she's bigger than the bad guys!

The third officer said, "Stop right there. We'll continue this conversation in about twenty years." Then he turned to the man on the ground and commanded the first two officers, "Okay. Let's get him on his feet and properly cuffed. Try not to let him escape. If he does, she will be pissed. Trust me on this; you do not want her pissed."

Alexis thought, Really? Ya think? Aunt Annie didn't look pissed, just completely in control. I'm not sure I'd want to see her pissed, she concluded to herself.

Then he turned to Alexis's Aunt Annie and stated, "I'll book him on assault for now. Ms. Anderson, did he hurt you? Or anybody else here?"

Aunt Annie smiled at the officer and replied, "No sergeant, he never laid a finger on me. He seems to have been by himself so I just contained him till we could tie him up. I had to wrench a bit on his left shoulder and had him in a semi-choke hold so the shoulder and his throat may be a sore and bruised, and he landed face first, but there shouldn't be any permanent injury. Can I bring my brother-in-law Anthony and father-in-law Fred with me to the side yard and give you a quick statement so we can get back to family fun and barbeque I really don't want this to mess up this evening too. "

"I think that is exactly what we should do. You didn't even get worked up this time?" the officer said politely.

"No, this was a piece of cake." Annie was almost laughing. Alexis marveled that her aunt could take an incident like what just happened so lightly.

Remembering the video on her phone, Alexis' heart skipped a beat but she dared to address her aunt anyway, "Aunt Annie, I've got something that might help."

"What's that Alexis?" Annie asked softly giving Alexis her full attention.

Somehow, having her aunt's full attention was comforting more than intimidating, she felt like an equal. She offered, "I was playing with the video recorder app on my phone. I don't have all the video of what he did, but I'm pretty sure I got the audio of it from the time he came through the gate and then video of you holding him down."

"You do?" the remaining officer asked, taking a step toward her. He seemed pleased which made Alexis stand a little taller. "I've got a recorder in the patrol car. I'll let you play it so I can catch the audio of what happened and then I'll jot down an e-mail address where you can send the video. Sometimes we don't like people making videos, but I think this time it's a good thing. You okay with doing that?"

"Yeah. Sure," Alexis said brightly. She was excited to be able to help.

Alexis poked at her phone for a few seconds and held it up so the police officer could see. She couldn't see the picture, but the guy's voice was clear; she hoped that what she had captured would help her aunt. Even though she had respect for those in law enforcement, Alexis had heard of innocent people going to jail; she didn't want that to happen to her aunt. The pleased looks on both her aunt's and the police officer's faces both made her proud and let Alexis know that what she'd captured on the video proved her aunt's innocence – that the intruder had been the aggressor. When the audio stopped, Alexis lowered her phone, but kept it open to the camera function – just in case.

What happened next sort of surprised her; she didn't think that police officers were supposed to act like that. The officer, addressing Annie directly said, "I couldn't do it last night, but I'd sure like to give you a high five now. That was awesome." Her aunt grinned at the officer and raised her right hand. The officer did the same and their hands met with a good "WHACK" the first time.

Aunt Annie could do a high five right too, thought Alexis. Sometimes even she and her friends didn't get it right.

After a brief trip to his patrol car for his digital recorder, Alexis was asked to accompany them outside the gate. She saw Megan looking at her like she was a rock star for having a part in it all. The officer talked to the adults – her Aunt Annie and her Grandpa with her Uncle Anthony standing by – just outside of the gate on the drive near the side entrance to the house. First he talked to Annie – Annie briefly, and without emotion, described what the intruder did and what she did in response. Then Grandpa Fred told almost the same story of what the man did and what he saw his daughter-in-law do in response to the man's aggression. Uncle Anthony quietly stood by and listened to his father and sister-in-law recount the man's actions. Finally the officer turned to Alexis. "Okay, young lady, it's your turn. Please tell me your name, how old you are and where you were when all of this was going on."

Alexis surprised herself by not being at all nervous when she began to speak to the officer's recorder trying to follow her Aunt Annie's example, "I'm Alexis Anderson and I'm sixteen. I was standing near my grandfather, grandmother, my younger sister, and my aunt when this big, scary looking man came busting through the back gate. He threatened my grandfather and my aunt intervened. I'd been playing with the video app on my cell phone and caught all of it on audio and much of it on video."

"Are you willing to share that video with the police?" the officer asked gently.

"Of course," Alexis responded.

"Would you play it now so that I can capture the audio? And will you send the video to me in an e-mail?"

"Yes. I'll play it for you now, and you've already given me an e-mail address for me to send the video." Holding the phone close to the officer's recorder, Alexis touched the screen on her phone a few times and the video began to play again. Alexis watched it for the first time and was pleasantly surprised that she'd caught the whole incident, as well as her Aunt Annie holding the man down. She felt a broad grin spread across her face as she watched her aunt in action again. Feelings of awe and a desire to be just like her aunt washed over her again, too. Then her Aunt Annie said something that totally surprised Alexis.

"You know that this video falls under that federal gag order, don't you? Neither of you can share it with anyone, even if my name isn't used," Annie said firmly.

Sergeant Jamison nodded. "I'm fully aware of that. A copy of the federal order will be on the file that contains the video – if you allow it to be e-mailed to me – and as soon as it's not needed for anything it will mysteriously be lost. Erased. Deleted."

"Thanks," Annie replied. "It would not be good for either my husband or I if that got posted on YouTube or somewhere like that."

When she was through talking to the police officer, Annie then turned to Alexis and asked gently, "Alexis, why were you videoing me?"

Alexis was alarmed at the question. She felt like she'd done something totally wrong. She began to answer, even though she didn't really think that what she'd done was so bad, in a subdued voice, "I started when you came out on the deck a bit ago. You move so gracefully that I wanted to video you so I could study the way you moved so that I could learn how to move like you do. I only wanted to study it; I never intended to share it with anyone." Alexis studied her aunt's face very carefully as she told her why she had wanted the video in the first place. Her Aunt Annie didn't seem at all upset so Alexis relaxed a little bit.

"Okay. When we get a chance, I want to see you send it to the address that the sergeant gave you and then I have to insist on you deleting it off your phone. Even though I trust you not to share it, just knowing that someone could maybe get ahold of your phone and look at it makes me very uncomfortable. I'm sorry Lexi, but I have to insist that you do that."

Looking down at the ground Alexis felt her stomach drop a bit. Her totally awesome Aunt Annie didn't want anyone see her be totally kick-ass. Alexis wondered why, but also heard herself say, "I'm sorry, Aunt Annie. I'll do it right now and not even send it to the officer if that's what you want." Alexis held her breath for her Aunt Annie's response. Even though she sort of knew what her aunt would say, Alexis hoped that she'd at least be able to send the video on to the nice policeman; he'd make sure that her Aunt Annie would not be in trouble. After what seemed to be forever, Alexis heard her Aunt Annie say, "The officer is an adult and has a lot to lose if the federal gag order isn't obeyed. I think I'm okay with sending it on to him, but once it's sent I need it to be gone. Okay?"

Without saying a word, Alexis opened the Camera Roll function on her phone and selected the video of her aunt being totally kick-ass, then she touched the area that would allow her to e-mail the video to the address written on the policeman's card; when the keypad opened, she carefully, but quickly, keyed in the address. Once that was done she handed the phone over to her Aunt Annie, "Check to make sure that I've input the e-mail address correctly. I don't want to accidentally send it to the wrong place."

Aunt Annie looked from the card and then at the iPhone screen. The police officer took the phone from Aunt Annie and said, "That's the correct address, Miss Alexis"

He handed the phone back to Alexis who quickly, before her aunt had a chance to change her mind, touched the 'SEND' button. The phone made a whooshing sound and then dinged. The video had been sent on to the police officer.

"It's sent. Now I'll delete it Aunt Annie." Then Alexis moved so that her aunt could see what she was doing on the phone. Once again she brought up the video and touched the tiny garbage can in the lower right corner, and then on the red delete video bar. With another sick feeling in her stomach Alexis watched the video disappear. Once it was gone, Alexis said, "I've deleted it."

Aunt Annie wrapped her arms gently around Alexis. Alexis thought her aunt was trying to be comforting, but at that moment, her aunt's embrace felt anything but comforting.

"Thank you, Lexi. I know that was hard for you to do. But, you do understand that I wouldn't ask you to do that if it wasn't so important?"

_Aunt Annie doesn't have a clue how hard that was,_ Alexis thought.

"Yeah," Alexis said and nodded against her aunt's arm. _No, I don't understand,_ Alexis thought. _Why don't you want people to know how totally awesome you can be? _

While Alexis and the adults were telling what happened, one of the other officers came back and stood patiently to one side until the first officer shut off the recorder. "Here Sarge," the officer began. "We've got the guy in the patrol car for the trip downtown. We've gotten all the formalities out of the way. We got his name out of him; here's his rap sheet. Thought you might like to see it." He handed several sheets of paper to the sergeant.

Alexis watched as the sergeant looked over the pages in his hand. She couldn't be sure, but Alexis thought that she saw alarm register on the sergeant's face.

"May I see that?" Annie asked and held out her hand.

The sergeant seemed to hesitate for a moment and then handed the pages over to Annie. "Sure, why not. I can print another one, you keep that one."

Annie said, "Thanks Sergeant. I'd like to understand this guy that raised a son who wanted to kill people for an evening's entertainment."

Alexis studied her aunt reading the papers in her hand. Her aunt gave no outward indication of what she thought of what she read on the pages. Pages of rap sheet, Alexis thought. What kind of person has encountered the police often enough to have PAGES of arrests?

Once Annie had finished studying the pages in her hand the sergeant said, "Thanks to all of you. You made this easy. He's the father of one of the three boys, the first one through the door. He had a really bad night at the hospital and the boy died early this morning. Doesn't excuse what he did here, or what his son attempted to do last night. But it puts his actions today in context a little bit. He should be grateful you didn't put him in the hospital. He has a reputation as a bar room brawler that handles himself pretty well."

"I heard that the first boy through the door died this morning," Annie said softly. "I'm sorry about that. But, you're right it doesn't make what he did just now okay."

Alexis looked at her aunt again in a new light. Aunt Annie really did look sad that the boy had died. Even though she knew that her aunt would be – she seemed to be that kind of person – it also seemed a bit odd to be sad for someone, who by all reports, had come to kill everyone in the house. Alexis wasn't even sure she was all that sorry that those boys last night had been killed. They'd come to kill people for sport. Sport? She didn't even condone killing animals for that.

"How do you know that?" the officer asked in surprise. "You mean you knew before this guy came shouting you'd killed his son?"

Annie nodded, "I didn't know he was the kid's father. But, yeah. I'd been informed of that earlier today. How that information came to be known by me is need to know, and no one here needs to know." Annie looked sternly at each person around her and then continued, "This guy wasn't a lethal threat – at least not to me – I just did what I had to do to stop the attack on my father-in-law."

There was that feeling again – the one that said that there was something more to her Aunt Annie than met the eye; and her Uncle Auggie, too, for that matter. When the conversation turned to work stuff, they were always quiet on the subject. Aunt Annie said that for the most part her job was boring; Uncle Auggie hid behind the fact that his job was classified. She'd heard her parents, and her Uncle Anthony, openly wonder if their brother and his new wife really did what they said they did. Aunt Annie traveled way too much and would rarely talk about where she'd been or about what she'd been sent to acquire. It was strange; whenever Alexis had been to Europe with her family she couldn't wait to share the details of the trip with her friends and family. Aunt Annie didn't say anything voluntarily and little even if asked. And she didn't have a FaceBook page either, or Twitter account. Neither did Uncle Auggie. Alexis knew because she had looked.

Alexis's attention went back to the police officers when the sergeant said to Aunt Annie, "You did him a favor not breaking his neck. Okay folks, we're out of here. Enjoy your barbeque." Alexis was amused when the officer tipped his cap toward Annie before he headed off down the drive to his waiting patrol car.

After the officer had departed Alexis's grandfather nudged her arm and the two of them headed back toward the gate and the, now subdued, party on the other side of the fence. As she walked back, Alexis pondered everything that had happened in the last 45 minutes – from the moment that the guy had busted up the family gathering to the time the police left. It was all sort of exciting even though it had started out quite frighteningly. The main thing that Alexis took away was a strong desire to take self-defense classes so that she could be just like her newest, coolest, and seriously awesome, aunt.

Adam Anderson

Adam was enjoying some quiet time with his wife, Olivia, on the edge of the gathering. They were both really busy with demanding schedules, and moments like this were cherished by both of them as a chance to nurture their bond together. With the comfort of nearly twenty years of marriage they sat in chairs they'd drawn close and watched the family and their kids interacting. Adam was watching the grills, one for the steaks for the adults, and one for the hamburgers and hot dogs for the teens. Not like the teens were relegated to having hamburgers and hot dogs, it just sort of worked out that way today. Olivia had taken on the task of watching the pots of boiling fresh sweet corn-on-the-cob that were on the side burners of the gas grills.

A movement appeared at the patio door on the back of the house when the screen door slid open and their newest sister-in-law appeared on the deck. Adam saw Olivia's head turn to watch her without staring; he saw others, especially Austin, do it too. They were still trying to come to grips with their new understanding of Annie, her selflessness when it came to protecting them all from what might have been the last night of their lives, and her having an apparent extreme level of adeptness with violence.

This stream of thought ran rapidly through Adam's consciousness as he watched her, blond hair, jean shorts, and T-shirt walk nonchalantly across the patio scanning casually over the gathering. He saw her smile as she looked in the direction of Mom and Dad who were talking with the girls, Megan and Alexis by the gate to the driveway. There were times when Annie didn't look any older than the girls; other times when she was all of her age and another ten in maturity.

Olivia said, "She looks like the really pretty girl-next-door that drives the guys wild and doesn't even know it. I still can't picture her doing what I know full well she did last night. You saw the bruises; we all saw the mess in the foyer, and heard the FBI lady tell us how blessed we were to have her here. But that's an intellectual truth that is really hard to reconcile with the girl I see walking across the deck in the direction of our girls. Yes, I said girl; today she doesn't look that much older than Alexis."

Adam nodded and added, "Look at the expression on the girl's faces when they look at her. Livvie, they idolize her. They've never known anybody like her before in their lives."

She replied, "None of us have, honey. I mean we know Auggie is a decorated combat veteran; so is Alan; but she's just one of us. She's the prototype of the smart, talented, intelligent, wholesome, beautiful girl-next-door every mom wants her son to bring home. She's perfect for Auggie. More perfect than any of us might have suspected. We girls got a clue when she took on Jessica in the shopping mall the day she and Auggie were engaged. But until last night I had no idea she had the depth of character, never mind the martial arts skills, to do what she did."

"I know what you mean. I am, however, more than a little intrigued by the fact that Auggie took it all in stride. He wasn't taken aback by it at all. In fact he took it for granted she'd have done what she did. How could he have known that?"

Olivia was about to answer when she held her hand up to Adam and tilted her head like she also heard what sounded to Adam like it might have been a shout from the front of the house. They looked at each other, then back across the yard where they could see a dark head of hair moving rapidly up the driveway that was outside of the fence. Adam was just about to say something when the gate burst open and a big burley looking man came through it yelling, "Which one of you sons-of-a-bitches killed my son? Who did it? I want to rip off your head you miserable scum."

Adam saw the man's gaze fix on his dad and started to rise when he saw Annie begin to move rapidly toward the man who was easily twice her size and then some. Adam got a chill of fear all over, felt Olivia's hand on his arm grab so tight it hurt, when he realized Annie was charging the man who was certain to kill or maim her – he was huge and rough looking. All of this happened in an instant; then the man launched a punch for his dad's face and … there was a blur of motion as Annie arrived between his dad and the big man … the punch never landed, he appeared to levitate, land on his face, and then suddenly he was on the ground with Annie holding his arm in a position that made Adam wince with her other arm wrapped around with his throat captured in the bend of her elbow, her hands joining in such a way that she could put incredible leverage on the man's shoulder. She was doing it. She had her legs straight, feet at right angles to the ground spread maybe four feet apart supporting her weight on her toes, legs straight and rigid to maximize both her stability and the body weight that was holding her down on the man's back.

Adam heard her say loud enough for all to hear in the dead silence that ensued after she acted, "Austin! Alan! Adam! Somebody bring me something to tie this guy up with. Zip ties would be great but they need to be thick and long."

Adam moved to get up and go to her aid when Olivia put hand on his arm saying, "My God, she did it again, just like that. Adam look at her, she has that big guy on the ground and try as he might, he can't get up. I hope she doesn't let go."

"No chance of that while she's still alive, I'll give her a hand-"

"No you won't. You'd just get in her way. Austin has gone into the shop. I'm sure he's gone to see if he can find what she wants."

Adam said, "Livvie, I had no idea there were women on the planet that could take down grown men more than twice their size, and as rare as they must be, Auggie married one. He has a live-in bodyguard. As if he needs one."

Olivia said, "None of this is lost on Megan and Alexis. Stand by to be besieged for martial arts training classes. I can see how they are looking at Annie right now," she paused as he interrupted his struggling and cursing to issue the cry of someone in excruciating pain. "Yup, right at this moment they want to be just like her. I'm thinking it's not a bad thing, but they need to realize you don't take on bad guys after a week of martial arts classes from the local self-proclaimed expert."

Adam said, "Assuming you are right, and it's not a stretch at all, we should ask Annie what sort of training she thinks would be the most valuable for the girls in terms of protecting themselves."

Olivia said, "I think, from something I overheard her say, she'll say situational awareness training."

They both paused while they watched Austin work with Annie to put the zip ties on the man's wrist.

Adam said, "I wonder who he is. From what he said, I think he had a son in the group of thugs who invaded the house last night."

Olivia added, "Which would mean, the girl who just took him down and made it look easy, relatively speaking, killed his son. I think that man's very bad week just went from very bad to worse. Much worse."

Their heads swiveled as one in the direction of the sirens they heard approaching. Adam spoke first, "I think we are going to get another visit from the police. Dad's neighbors are going to wonder what it was this time."

Olivia, ever the practical one, replied, "They will read all about it in the paper and hear all about it on the TV news, but it won't be what we just saw."

They watched as Annie stood up leaving the man on the ground. It looked to them like she had said or done something that convinced him getting up would be a very bad idea. Very bad indeed. In fact Olivia said, "He's lying there like he's more afraid of her than the cops that are coming."

Adam replied, "Do you blame him? I bet this isn't his first rodeo, but I'd also bet large it's the first time he's been taken down by a hot blonde a third his size." Adam got up and took a few steps toward the grills, turning them off and closing the lids to keep the meats from overcooking or getting too cold to be appetizing once the hubbub was over.

"No doubt," Olivia agreed.

Out of the corner of his eye Adam saw Auggie, a look of panic on his face, get up and stumble toward his wife. Austin, now finished with tying up the intruder, separated from the clutch of people surrounding the fallen man and went to his brother's aid.

"No doubt at all," Alan said as he hobbled up to join their conversation. "You saw that, right?"

Adam said, "I think I did, it was over before I had time to realize it was happening."

Alan said, "Same thing last night. I saw the whole thing like just now, and I almost can't tell you what happened it happened so fast. Did you see how she took that guy down? I didn't."

"I didn't. Olivia, did you see it?"

"I had my eyes open, I was looking in that direction, but I could not tell you how she did that, only that she did it. I'm not sure I believe it is even possible to do what she did. That guy is a man mountain."

"Yes, he is," Alan agreed. He looked thoughtful for a moment then called to Auggie, "Hey, bro, got a beer for a Marine?"

Austin, with Auggie on his arm, wandered in their direction no longer needed by Annie. The brothers climbed the steps to the deck and Auggie separated from Austin and headed toward the house. Austin then approached Adam, Olivia and Alan and joined their conversation late asking, "Did any of you see how she did that? I was only fifteen feet away and I'm not sure I saw what I saw."

"I know what you mean," Alan replied.

Austin said, "She reacted so fast I'm not sure it's humanly possible to react that fast, I mean she stopped a punch from landing. Fact. I saw it. Nobody can react that fast, so how does that woman do the impossible?"

Adam said thoughtfully, "I think I know." That got all their attention.

Alan said, "C'mon Adam, drop the other foot."

Adam said, "I saw her start to move toward him before he knew himself he was going to throw the punch. She literally had a head start. She was in full motion when he drew back his fist; all she had to do was react to the punch she was already headed for. I am not sure what is more impressive, her ability to handle him physically like she did, or her anticipation that gave her the edge to do it."

"I saw that too," Alan said. "She's remarkably alert to danger, even here in Mom and Dad's back yard where nothing ever happens. She seems to have a gift for it. Special Agent Parker said it was a gift. I have to believe it is, and that it is remarkably rare."

Adam said, "I'm feeling a little guilty sitting here talking about her like this, but on the other hand, I don't know any other way for us to understand and appreciate her, and Auggie. And you for that matter, Alan. I'm beginning to regard the three of you as sort of peers in the area of self-defense. Auggie is handicapped by his sight; you, for the moment, by that walking cast. She's the one that's able to respond." He paused, the others nodded, and he added, "Which reminds me I need to find out if she aggravated any of her injuries from last night with this latest fight."

Olivia said, "It was a fight, wasn't it. I mean, sorry to be so dense and to take so long to figure it out, but she was in a fight to the death with those three guys last night, and won. Right? I mean, this isn't the Roman Coliseum but that is exactly what she was up against yesterday. I hadn't thought of it in those terms. That big guy it takes two cops to walk out the gate could have hurt her horribly, maybe killed her with one blow, and she didn't even blink. Do you think any of that occurred to her when she launched herself in his direction to save Dad?"

Alan said, "You would have to ask her, but my guess is she would be surprised by the question. It would never occur to her to think of herself, to do a risk-reward assessment in that situation. She's wired to go, to get between danger and those she loves, to get it on, all in. Her analysis is limited to will he attack or not? If her assessment is yes, as far as she is concerned, it's on. Period."

Adam said, "I read something in one of the medical journals several years ago about Warrior Personalities. I think I just saw one in action tonight, and benefited from that same one saving my life last night."

Alan said, "How do you repay a debt like that?"

Adam said, "With unconditional love."

Olivia said, "That's really the answer, isn't it. She can do it, I'll swear to it. I loved that girl when she demonstrated to us how much she loved Auggie in the mall that day she backed Jess down. I love her more now. I just hope it never backfires on her. We have to find ways to let her know we love her for herself, just like she is, sweet girl, vivacious blonde, charming companion, gifted language expert, sister-in-law, Auggie's wife, and Warrior. She's the whole package, comes with accessories most of us don't have."

Alan said, "I've heard about the exchange between her and Jess more than once, but never heard the details."

Olivia said, "You would need to ask her or Jess. I don't think you'd get far asking Annie because she wouldn't want to say anything that might make you think less of Jess. Jessica, on the other hand, would use it to build up Annie. She did at the time."

"Then I suppose I'll never really know," Alan said.

While this conversation was going on, Alfred, Anthony, Alexis, the police, and Annie had walked out through the gate. Alfred returned looking back as he came through the gate with Alexis; Anthony and Annie returned to the yard a couple of minutes later with Annie leading the way. Once everyone was back in the yard and the gate closed and latched, Abigail suggested that, since the food was ready, everybody ought to think about getting it while it was serving temperature.

Auggie came out through the patio door holding two bottles of beer around the necks with his left hand. "Alan?"

"Over here, bro," Alan responded. "Far end of the deck. If you don't veer too far off course you've got a straight shot to me from there."

"Okay. Are the four of you through discussing my wife now?"

Adam said to those in the vicinity, "I think I'm going to take Mom up on her suggestion right now. I've been sitting here manning that grill for the last almost an hour and I really, really, want to get some of what has been on there." He wasn't about to admit to his brother that he'd been talking about his wife behind his back. But he also wondered how Auggie knew that. His brother might have honed his listening skills, but he certainly didn't have super hearing.

With that, the group broke up – Austin headed to where his wife stood talking to Jessica; Alan remained where he was until Auggie got to him with the beer, and then they took up seats at the patio table. Adam made a mental note to find a moment to thank Annie one-on-one as he took his place in line for the buffet that was ready to go. With his practiced doctor's eye Adam watched the way Annie moved as she walked to where her husband sat and then as the pair, at Abigail's insistence, took a place near the front of the line. She didn't seem to be moving any more gingerly that she had before she'd tossed that hulk of a man like he was a rag doll. He watched as she loaded a plate for her husband, and then guided Auggie back to where he had been sitting with Alan. It was no surprise to him when she place the laden plate in front of her husband, leaned in and whispered something to him before moving back to the buffet line to make her own plate. Every time they'd been in this sort of situation she'd taken care of her husband before thinking of herself. He knew that his brother looked out for Annie in other ways, just as he did Olivia and his children. Neither of those women put others ahead of themselves from a position of subservience, but from a position of self-empowerment – they thought of others first because they wanted to, not because it was expected of them.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Anyone have a comment?<strong>


	12. Lots of Love

**Here's the next installment. Enjoy.**

**Again it's been a group effort between me, Mandy58 and fbobs.**

**And the other disclaimer - no copywrite infringement meant. I totally respect the work of Chris Ord and Matt Corman.**

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><p><strong>Annie Anderson<strong>

Annie saw Austin watching her come back through the gate a step or two ahead of Anthony. She felt again like last night, not quite as strongly perhaps, but the urge to run away and hide was still there. It was like she was about to test the water of a pond before going swimming. The feeling was so different from a few minutes earlier when she had stepped through the patio door from the house into the back yard. Then she felt comfortable, her eyes and ears cruising the dynamics picking a place to dive in full of confidence that she would be accepted. Now she felt tentative. She braced herself when she saw him head in her direction but tried to cover it with a pleasant look that she could tell didn't quite cover her feelings of the moment. Where was her deception training when she needed it?

Austin made his way over and said, "Annie, got a second?"

She looked his way and gave him a pleasant look and said, "Sure?" It was supposed to be a statement, but the inflection came off to her ears as a question.

"Annie," Austin began in a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear, "I want to thank you in front of everybody for what you just did for dad, for us. You are here with your family. You are injured, that guy was three times your size and you didn't even blink, just took him on. You have earned my unconditional love and respect, and I'm sure that of the whole family. Please, never doubt that. You are our sister and we're family, we're here for you all the way."

That was followed by a chorus of agreement by all present as they gathered around her. She could feel herself surrounded by warmth and acceptance. Adam's voice coming over the crowd to say, "Well said, bro. Couldn't have said it better myself. Annie, we love ya. Never doubt that."

Annie looked at Austin, took him in, and then her eyes moved over the assembled family group all looking at her; she saw only love, approval, and acceptance on their faces and in their body language. No doubt, no questions, no accusation. She looked back at Austin, and around at all of them through eyes that were overloading with pent up emotion and said, "Thanks. I needed that." She reached out slightly for Auggie's hand. He was her anchor and right now, when her emotions were threatening to implode, she needed her personal one-man support system. For once he wasn't there. He was standing beside Austin. How had she missed that a moment ago? He wore a broad grin and his eyes were sparkling.

Alfred was standing nearest, took a step over and gave her a one-armed hug, and said, "That goes double for Abby and I."

Annie felt her eyes spill over onto her cheeks and didn't care. She looked at them all with tears running down her face, smiled through the tears and said, "You have no idea how much you all mean to me. You are more precious to me than life itself. Thank you for being so wonderful. I'm pretty sure I'm a new experience for all of you. I am so blessed you can accept me as I am. And I am so blessed to have you and Auggie in my life. Thank you. … Now I need a napkin or something." She chuckled a little trying to wipe her cheeks with her fingers before the tears dripped on her shirt, "I'm a mess."

Auggie pushed past his brothers and then slid his arms around her and said, "You are my mess, and I love you."

Abigail tapped Annie on the shoulder, held out three or four tissues and said, "Here you go. Get that dried off and let's get some food in you. Just watching you has made me both hungry and exhausted. You are a bad guy's worst nightmare. You need to eat so you grow up big and strong." Abigail laughed a little at her own joke; so did the others.

Alan said, "Mom, if she gets any bigger and stronger, there will be a traffic jam of crooks trying to get out of Glencoe."

As an informal line formed for the buffet-style cookout fare, Annie guided Auggie. She plated his food describing what was available. After looking around at the patio and yard, and finding it to have suddenly become more obstacle course than blind person friendly yard, advised her husband, "Auggie, the yard is a mess. Let me guide you to a table." When Auggie nodded his acquiescence she took his plate and brushed the back of his hand. Once she maneuvered them through the crowd of hungry family and got him seated, oriented to his setting and the food on his plate, she returned to the line which put her right behind Olivia and Adam.

Olivia turned to Annie with her brow slightly wrinkled and said; "Annie, Adam and I are expecting Megan and Alexis to besiege us with requests to take training so they can be just like their Aunt Annie. We have exactly zero experience with self-defense in any form beyond locking doors and hoping, and in this day and age, that clearly isn't enough. Is it reasonable for Adam and me to do some training too?"

Before Annie could answer Olivia continued, "Sis, we have no misconception we will ever be even five percent as competent as you are, I think you are pretty special even among elite martial artists, but there is clearly more to it than just knowing how to punch or hit."

When Olivia paused Annie said, "Yes, there is a lot you can learn that doesn't require going to a dojo, or sparring with a master like Auggie. It's called Situational Awareness. But even before that, most important, more important than anything else, is to make the personal commitment to survive. To promise yourself you won't let the bastards win. You will survive. Getting hurt is okay, getting killed – or worse, and there is worse – isn't. When you get mugged in a parking lot, your good options are all gone; at that point, you do what you have to do to survive."

Annie was suddenly aware she had drawn a bit of a crowd. The family was gathering around her, nobody was saying anything; it seemed as if they were hanging on her every syllable. She glanced around and saw Megan and Alexis totally focused on her; on what she was saying. At that point, she knew stopping was not an option, so she continued saying, "When you get mugged, the nice options are gone, so your first goal is to avoid getting mugged. The weapon for doing that is called Situational Awareness. Be aware of where you are, of what is going on around you. Girls," she looked at Megan and Alexis, "when you are out and about, it means doing things like, stopping inside the mall doors and scanning the parking lot looking for suspicious characters and not going out there if you see any. It means sitting so you can see the entrance of the restaurant; it means knowing where the exits are from a restaurant, it means knowing where there is something you could use to break a window and escape if you had to. It means being aware of potential freeway stalkers in cars and knowing how to get away from them. It means walking heads up, no iPod blaring in your ear, no small talk on the cell with a girlfriend or boyfriend distracting you from observing your surroundings. It means not acting like a victim. I could spend two eight hour days talking about it, but there are good books you can read. And I'd be happy to take you girls on a shopping trip through a mall or two and narrate what I see and what I'm looking at while we are driving and walking, and in stores."

Alexis said, "Tomorrow Aunt Annie, can we do that tomorrow?"

"Yes, if it's ok with your Mom and Dad."

Adam said, "Absolutely. Livvie and I are jealous."

Annie chuckled and said, "It's girl's day out."

Jenna said, "May I come too? I've seen you in action twice; I'd love to join you girls."

Without hesitation Annie replied, "I'd love to have you, it's the least I can do to repay you for scaring the heck out of you last night. But that's probably it for this trip. I want especially to spend some time with the most vulnerable of you, and, please don't take this wrong; I think that's the three of you."

Megan, literally jumping up and down, said, "Oh thank you. But how do you deal with trouble if you can't avoid it? Two days in a row you have had trouble come looking for you."

Annie laughed and said, "It wasn't looking, it seems to pretty much know where I am all the time."

That got a laugh, but Jessica said, "I get the situational awareness, to some extend all women do that, but probably not nearly as well as we should. But if someone grabs me, it has occurred to me, and more often than just since last night, I wouldn't know what to do. I have spent my whole life being told not to resist. To be what I now recognize is a willing victim. Pardon my language but at this point, after your example, being a victim sucks big time. What we've been told our whole lives is just plain bull crap."

Annie looked at Jessica in a new light, smiled slightly and said, "You're right, but just so you know, a lot of the commercial self-defense stuff is bull crap too. I had a third degree black belt from a commercial Karate school when Auggie showed me I knew exactly nothing about self-defense in the sense of using it to stay alive when faced by those who would do me harm. I had learned to spar pulling punches, I knew rituals, I could do choreographed moves like dance routines, kata's, slowly with perfect form. But Auggie could take me down with one hand tied behind his back, maybe standing on one foot. Auggie taught me a form of self-defense used by the Israeli Self Defense Force, the Special Forces, and Seal Teams called Krav Maga. The idea is to land the first blow and make it decisive. When the nice options are gone despite your best efforts at situational awareness, get close, get ugly, get vicious, hurt them bad before they hurt you. Take them down so they can't get up. If they do get up, all you've done is piss them off. If you are my size, going up against big strong men or multiple men, it's win or die, or worse than die."

Jenna said, "What's worse than being killed?"

"Being taken someplace else, raped and tortured for days or weeks, then killed."

Olivia gasped; Jenna looked shocked; but Jessica said, "I thought that might be what you would say. And I agree with you. I've read about things like that happening."

Annie nodded and added, "Just so you know where I'm coming from, The assailants last night, I am not in their heads, and none of them can tell us what they were thinking, but my assessment, and that of the law enforcement professionals who were here, is that the guys who came here last night had doing that to us after killing our guys maybe, planned as their evening's entertainment." She paused and said, "Please forgive me, I'm screwing up the serving of a delicious smelling barbeque and I'm going to eat a plate if I don't get some food soon. We can talk more about this later? Please?"

Adam said, "Allow me," walked her to the front of the line and said, "Please honor us by filling your plate and joining your husband who is waiting expectantly for you."

Annie gave Adam's arm a quick little squeeze and said, "I don't mind if I do, I wasn't kidding about being hungry." She chuckled and said, "It's a really bad idea to be between me and my food." That got some chuckles from those close to her as well. Not nervous chuckles, but chuckles appreciating the humor. She was one of them.

Annie filled her plate, her mind half on the task at hand and half on what she'd just said to the group. It wasn't conventional wisdom, but she didn't regard self-defense as a sport any longer, it was a tool to stay alive and should be treated that way. It was okay to enjoy it; to like the benefits of being in shape, feeling good, and being able to hit targets with a handgun, but the mental part, the attitude was what was the most important. Hopefully she had made a start on getting through to the girls about that.

When she arrived at the table where Auggie sat patiently waiting she bent over and whispered in his ear, "Honey, you didn't have to wait for me, please eat that before icicles form on it."

With him so close she couldn't resist; she set down her plate and then turned his face to her and planted a passionate kiss on him. She could tell he was a bit surprised by the very public display of affection, but Annie could also tell that he was pleased by it. After picking her plate back up, she habitually walked around the table to sit opposite Auggie where she could see the patio door on the house as well as the side gate to the driveway. A few seconds later, Abigail and Alfred walked up and Alfred asked, "May we join you?"

Annie blushed and said, "Of course, we'd love to have you join us."

They sat down with Abigail next to Annie across from Alfred. Annie saw her mother-in-law looking around the yard from where she was sitting, and then she turned to Annie and asked, "This is what you meant wasn't it? Sitting where you can see all the entrances and exits?"

Annie said, "By George I think she's got it," in her best Rex Harrison imitation.

Abigail laughed and said, "That was great. Every now and then your language skills slip out. How many languages do you speak anyway, I can't keep track."

Glad to have a new subject Annie replied, "I speak six with native proficiency, in other words, I can be in the country talking with the natives and they don't know I'm not one of them. I could pass for French in France when I was fifteen. I was in a small town a bicycle ride from where we lived, looking at some things in a small store when some American tourists came in. The French clerk was making insulting remarks about them to me when I realized he didn't know I wasn't French! I went right along with it and resisted dancing and shouting 'I won', till I got out in the country, then I went crazy laughing. That was the ultimate test."

"Do you speak some languages with other than native proficiency?"

"Yes, I get by in six more. I had to learn Farsi enough to get by when the Smithsonian put together that exhibit of Iraq art over the centuries. I don't speak Arabic at all. I'm sort of decent in two of the four major dialects of Chinese, but since I've had no reason to learn the other two I don't speak them. I understand some of what's said, but really can't converse in them."

With a sly grin Auggie said, "She can dance too."

Annie laughed and said, "So can you, as you proved at our wedding. I have witnesses. Two of them are right here."

Alfred said, "The day the two of you got married was one of the best days of our lives. We are still learning how blessed we were on that day."

Auggie held up his beer bottle, stood up and said for all to hear, "I'd like to propose a toast."

It got quiet, Alfred, Abigail, and Annie picked up their glasses, others picked up their beverage of choice, which Auggie apparently sensed because he continued, "Here's to family. Especially here's to this family, to our parents, to my brothers and their wonderful wives, to the nieces and nephews we're blessed with, and to my bride of two months to whom I owe so much, and who gives me so much. Finally I'd like to toast all the service men and woman who have defended this country for over two hundred years. All of them, the living who have written a blank check to the country redeemable for up to and including their lives, and those who sacrificed all their tomorrows so we could be here today. So here is to all of that. We are well and truly blessed this Independence Day."

There was a chorus of agreement and sounds of cans and glasses touching. Annie found Auggie's hand to make sure her glass clinked with his bottle saying, "Here's to my soldier, my personal hero, my husband. Here's to you Auggie. It might not be Memorial Day, but without our military men we wouldn't be the nation we are today. So, today is your day; and Alan's day. The rest of us are just benefactors."

Alfred said, "To the family."

Abigail looked at Annie for a minute and was about to say something but Annie put her hand on her arm and said, "Please don't. This is their day, Alan's and Auggie's. My Dad's, and all those in harm's way as we sit here. We need to thank our military men every time we have a holiday. Without their sacrifices we wouldn't have the chances to be together like we are."

Abigail leaned over, put her arms around Annie, gave her a kiss on the cheek and said in her ear, "It's your day too Annie." She leaned back, picked up her fork, took a bite of potato salad and asked, "What mall are you going to?"

Annie replied, "I'm not sure, but the one the four of us, Livvie, Jess, Jenna and I, went to the day Auggie and I were engaged, would be a good one. It has a lot of opportunities to teach lessons. My time with the girls will be limited, I need to impart all I can without burning them out in the limited time I have."

Abigail said, "The way they look at you, I don't think you could burn them out if you just sat and read them the white pages in the phone book. You are something completely new to them. They've seen TV heroines, but never a real life one, never mind seeing one in action like today."

"I saw the look," Annie said worriedly. "It's a lot to live up to. But if we get a chance to go over the fundamentals and discuss a few rules of thumb, I can teach them a lot in a couple of hours. Then I'll have them lead back practicing SA."

Annie's phone rang, she looked at the front of it, and it was Joan. She touched the phone to answer it holding it so Joan could hear what she said, turned to Abigail and Alfred and said, "Please excuse me, I'll only be a minute, but I need to take this."

She walked across the yard, into the house, and up to the bedroom, shut the door and said, "Hi Joan."

"Annie, what happened there today? I just got a police report there was another attack on the Anderson household that some un-named blonde ended by neutralizing the attacker and holding him for police. Care to explain?"

"If that's what's in the report, they reported on the same incident I was involved in."

"What happened?"

"The father of the first man through the door, the one that died later of … of damage I inflicted on him, came looking for revenge. I took him down as he threw a punch at Auggie's dad and convinced him to remain quiet while we zip tied his hands together and to his belt. I had him lie on the ground. The same police sergeant who was here last night responded to the scene. It went very smoothly. The guy is being booked for assault as we speak. He has a reputation as a bar room brawler and was taking his grief out the only way he knew how."

"I am looking at his arrest record. I can't imagine why he isn't in jail. It says here he's six-foot-two, two-hundred-eighty-five pounds. You are lucky he didn't break you in half."

"I didn't give him a chance."

"Don't get me wrong here Annie, but he's huge and from his picture not fat and flabby. I'm glad he's not dead or permanently injured, but if he was, I'd be totally supportive. Don't take chances with guys that big girl; put then down so they can't get back up."

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to get that same lecture from Auggie when he gets me alone. But these are civilians Joan, not enemy combatants; the rules of engagement are different. He wasn't armed, lethal force would have been a hard sell, and it's too fine of a line to play with. You know that. I went directly for containment. When he wanted to struggle on the ground, I told him if he got loose I'd have to kill him because he was too big to fight. He believed me."

"You have a point about civilians, but you are just as dead or injured if they win as if an enemy wins. Don't forget that."

"Trust me, I won't."

"I'm going to run a check on the other parents to see if any of them look likely to follow up like this guy did. I'll let you know one way or the other in a few hours."

"Thanks, I really appreciate that. As it is I'm beginning to feel more like I'm in little Beirut than a wealthy suburb of Chicago. But I'm not leaving early because of this."

"I don't expect you to. Go enjoy yourself. I'll get some intel and call you back."

Annie stopped in the bathroom, washed her hands, splashed some water on her face, wiped it off, ran a brush over her hair once, and headed back to the yard. She returned to the table to find Auggie and Alfred talking. She sat back down, had a couple of bites of potato salad and a fork full of cold beans but didn't have the appetite to eat after talking to Joan. She reached for the guy's plates and asked if they wanted any dessert.

Auggie said he'd pass, then asked, "Is the path clear to the house, I need to visit the bathroom."

Annie took a look and said, "Yes, it is." She knew better than to offer to guide him if he didn't ask. When Auggie headed for the house, Alfred looked at her plate and said, "What happened, Annie? What took your appetite away?"

Without looking around again, Annie asked, "Dad, are we alone here?" She knew they were as alone as one could be in a crowd, but she wanted to impress on her father-in-law how private she wanted the conversation to be.

"For the moment, yes. You have something you need to talk about?"

"Yes. Just so you understand. Sometimes fighting does that to me. Afterwards I get to thinking about the consequences of losing, which never occur to me when I'm in a fight, and I don't feel so good right now. Last night I about passed out when Jenna helped Auggie put me to bed. I guess I had more of an adrenaline shot during my encounter with that man today than I thought." She paused, and then she looked right at him and said, "Dad, I don't know what possesses me to do that. To just go for them like last night, or that man today. I think about it later and it makes me nauseous. I wake up dripping wet in bed with nightmares about what if something had gone wrong, what if I made a mistake and got badly hurt or killed. How that would affect, Auggie. But when it happens, when I could see that guy was going to take a punch at you, I didn't even think about consequences, they simply weren't a consideration. It's later when I pay for it. If this is as bad as it gets, I'll be happy."

Annie thought maybe she'd made a mistake because Alfred looked stunned, then his expression changed and he said, "I'm not going to ask how you know your fight response so well because it's obvious you are in more than you can admit to. Any fool can see you've been in more than one or two fights for your life. You are simply too good at it for these to have been the only two. The one thing I'm certain of, the fights clearly aren't of your choosing any more than these were. I trust you completely to do what's right. But I appreciate you letting me know how much it costs you. And the fact that you think about it, the fact that it makes you ill, is oddly reassuring."

"Auggie says it never gets easier, and if it does, that's when I should worry."

"Auggie is a very lucky man to have found you Annie. Abby and I are maybe your biggest fans on the planet. We were before, we still are. You had us the first day we met you."

"Thanks Dad. May I give you a hug?"

"By all means."

Annie stood up, walked around the table and gave Alfred a hug. Then said, "I need to find my guy," and walked away towards the house, leaving Alfred looking after her with some concern.

# # #

**Alfred Anderson**

Abigail returned to join her husband with two bowls of strawberry short cake and looked at Annie's nearly full plate still sitting there. She looked at Alfred, back at the plate, and asked, "We have an upset daughter?"

Alfred thought about his and Annie's conversation; wondered what to share; finally decided to share it all. He said, "She's having another let down after her fight with that man today. She called it an 'encounter' but it was a fight and given his size and what we now know is his reputation as a bar brawler, very, very dangerous for her. She could have been maimed, permanently crippled, or killed by that guy before any of us could have stopped him. If she hadn't gotten between us, he most certainly would have done that to me."

Abigail said, "She doesn't think of consequences when she counter-attacks, does she?"

"No, she just told me she doesn't. She said, 'Dad, I don't know what possesses me to do that. To just go for them like last night, or that man today. I think about it later and it makes me nauseous. I wake up dripping wet in bed with nightmares about what if something had gone wrong, what if I made a mistake and got badly hurt or killed. How that would affect, Auggie. But when it happens, when I could see that guy was going to take a punch at you, I didn't even think about consequences, they simply weren't a consideration. It's later when I pay for it. If this is as bad as it gets, I'll be happy.' She pays a bigger price for her valor than any of us except Auggie know.

"She's no fool Abby, she's no psycho; she's a conscientious young woman who has the gift – or curse – of valor, and pays the painful consequences later – she has bruises on more than her little body. We are blessed she was here both days. We should think about how we deal with issues like this when she isn't here. What happened last night could happen anytime. You and I can't fight like she can. She's clearly an elite warrior of some sort, but I won't ever ask her what sort. That said, we need to think about what we would do if she wasn't here."

"Why don't we ask her dear? She's quite clearly an expert."

"I will, but I think we could also talk with Tony or Alan. Probably Alan."

Abigail looked at her husband for a long moment and said, "I don't believe for a minute she's in the acquisitions department at the Smithsonian. Neither do you. And I'm pretty sure Auggie isn't in an IT position at the Pentagon. He's in IT alright, for some government agency, probably the same un-named one she works for, but not the Pentagon. His boss, Joan, was here at the wedding. She seemed too familiar with Annie when she was here to be a casual acquaintance to Annie. And Annie just got a call from a Joan; I saw her name on the phone before she palmed it."

Alfred answered softly, "I'm certain you are right. It's the only rational explanation I can come up with to explain them. To explain her incredibly proficient and violent performances on our behalf last night and today. I'm also certain Alan knows the truth or close enough that it doesn't matter, and that Anthony has figured it out. But promise me you won't ask them, any of them. Please."

"I won't, I promise. But I will say some extra prayers for them to be safe and come home to us whole."

"Me too, Abby, me too." He looked around and said, "We need to finish these berries and see about getting things cleaned up a little." They both went to work on their shortcake. It was delicious.

They finished their berries about the same time; both sighed with pleasure, looked at each other and chuckled. Alfred said, "I love you."

She replied, "And I love you too dear husband." She smiled at him, then her expression changed and she said, "Our Auggie married an extraordinary woman Alfred. I think we have no idea how extraordinary she really is. Auggie knows, and that's enough for me."

"Once again my dear, I think you have it exactly right." As one, they got up, picked up their dishes off the table, and headed over to deal with them, and begin the cleanup. After the dishes were taken care of, Alfred turned to his wife of nearly fifty decades, opened his arms, and right there the two of them shared a delightful hug and a kiss, their way of celebrating the day.

Alfred saw Annie approaching looking better than she had a few minutes ago. She walked up grinning and said, "You have no idea how good that hug and kiss made me feel. You guys are so special." She looked around, and before they could respond said, "Is there any more of that shortcake around?"

Abigail said, "I have more in the fridge. Come on in and I'll make you up a dish. These are berries from the Oxnard Plain in California, and they are absolutely delicious. It's real whipped cream too, not the canned stuff. You are going to love this."

Annie said, "Why are we still here?" She grabbed a load of dishes and bounded up the steps and into the house."

Alfred said, "The young have such resilience."

"They do," Abigail said, "but I think she's putting a lot of miles on hers. I'd love to see her get pregnant; I think it might keep her safer."

Alfred said, "It might, but get in there before she changes her mind about the shortcake or some other jerk comes through the front door and she has to pound him into the ground."

Abigail said, "Bring enough dishes for both of us, I have a shortcake to fix," and did her seventy-year-old imitation of Annie's trip up the stairs to the door followed by Alfred's laughter.

* * *

><p><strong>More next week after the most awesome season premiere!<strong>


	13. Girls and Guys Morning Out

**Here's the next installment. Some good advice in here. It's a bit longer than usual, but we're nearing the end.**

**My thanks to Mandy58 and fbobs for their contributions.**

**No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

><p><strong>Annie Anderson<strong>

The 5th of July dawned in great contrast to the 4th. The 4th had been bright, sunny and warm; the 5th was overcast and noticeably cooler. Another way that the 5th was different from the 4th as that Annie woke up alone in the bed. Even after the events of the last two days she'd slept much better than she thought she might; there had been patches of sleeplessness where she remembered what she'd done her first night in town, but they had not been as frequent or lasted as long as she had feared when she lay down beside her husband the night before.

By the digital clock on the bedside table it was 7:30 and she wasn't alone in the suite, just alone in the bed. Auggie had already risen and she could hear the shower running behind the closed bathroom door. A few moments later the sound of the shower ceased. Annie stretched, wincing slightly at the tenderness in her lower left torso – most of the soreness in her muscles had been worked out – and then swung her legs out of the comfortable bed. Part of her really wanted to remain in bed but knew that was a luxury she could not afford today – she had promised one of her sisters-in-law and the oldest two of her four nieces a lesson in Situational Awareness. Jenna had offered to pick Alexis and Megan up and bring them over around 9:30 so they could hit the mall shortly after it opened at 10.

Unless she wanted to rush to get ready, Annie knew she could not linger in bed any longer. Knowing that her husband was probably nearly finished with his morning tasks, Annie padded across the luxuriously carpeted room and quietly opened the bathroom door. Pausing for a moment when her husband didn't have his razor to his neck to greet him, Annie took in the view. It was a view she never got tired of looking at – her physically fit husband stood at the sink clad only in a bath towel slung low on his hips and was scraping the lather off his neck. When he took the razor away to rinse off the lather in the water-filled sink, she greeted him with a gentle, "Good Morning."

"Morning, Luv," he replied without moving his head in her direction. "Enjoying the view? Sleep well?"

"Yes, I always enjoy this view. And yes, I slept much better than I thought I might. Why didn't you wake me when you got up?" It was a gentle question and by no means meant as an accusation. Secretly she appreciated the extra half-an-hour of sleep; and she was surprised that she didn't feel more like she'd been run over by a truck.

"I thought you needed the sleep more than you needed to be up with me. I know that you have plans and couldn't spend all day in bed, so I was going to wake you when I was done in here."

"Okay. And thank you," Annie said as she paused behind her husband. She lifted slightly on her toes and kissed him on the back between his shoulder blades – right in the center of the tattoo that was one of her reminders of the man he'd once been. She'd never known that man, and he had long ago let go of the sighted part of himself. Even though she knew there was a small part of him that longed to be that person still, Annie also knew that he was content in the life he had now.

Roughly forty-five minutes later Annie exited the guest room ready to meet her day. She was both excited and nervous about what she'd agreed to do. It was a big responsibility she'd taken on. In her opinion, right now, the two teen nieces and her youngest sister-in-law were the most vulnerable to becoming victims. Alexis and Megan were young, hadn't exactly been sheltered, but hadn't been exposed to the seedier sides of life either; and Jenna, for a woman of her age, was surprisingly naïve in some ways. Jessica, Annie's truly socialite sister-in-law, seemed to have more of a sense of personal security than Jenna did. Annie knew she had to do something to change that in order to keep Jenna from becoming a victim sometime when she wouldn't have someone around to save her from herself.

When Annie entered the kitchen a few minutes later, Auggie was just finishing a plate of scrambled eggs and toast; Alan and Alfred were also sitting at the table with empty plates in front of them. Abigail looked up from loading the dishwasher and asked, "What can I get for you, Annie dear?"

"I saw some Greek yogurt in the fridge yesterday. I think I'll have some of that and the rest of the strawberries if no one minds. It's too late to eat much and still be ready to have lunch at the mall with Jenna, Alexis and Megan. That's part of the situational awareness training that I'd planned for them."

"Okay then. Whatever you can find," Abigail said and returned to her task of loading the dishwasher.

Annie opened the refrigerator and found the small bowl of leftover strawberries and the large container of plain Greek yogurt. After plopping a couple of healthy dollops of yogurt on top of the berries in the bowl, Annie put the yogurt container back in the refrigerator and joined her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law at the breakfast table.

"You doing okay?" Auggie asked as his wife sat down beside him.

"Yeah," Annie replied. "The bruises aren't bothering me too much, if that's what you're getting at."

"It was. Partly. You never did tell me if the guy yesterday made you hurt more."

"No. Not really. I might ache a bit less today if I hadn't had to deal with him, but I don't ache any more than I did yesterday morning."

"Truth?" Auggie asked turning his head so he appeared to look right at his wife.

Annie reached over and took her husband's hand and gave in a strong squeeze. "Truth," Annie solemnly replied. "I'm not telling you I'm one-hundred percent – you know I'm not that – but what I am saying is that I'm not worse than I was."

Auggie wore a look of disbelief.

"Yeah, I'm a bit surprised at that, too, but I didn't hurt myself any more than I already was."

Auggie reversed the hold on his wife's hand and gave hers a gentle squeeze. "I believe you," was all he had to say. He picked up his plate and utensils and then stood and walked into the kitchen where he handed them off to his mother. Alan gathered his and his father's things and followed his brother into the main part of the kitchen where he placed the items directly into the dishwasher before joining his father heading into the family room.

Annie heard Abigail stage whisper to her son, "She looks rested and quite perky this morning. One would never guess she's been in two fights in the last two days."

Annie smiled at the exchange between mother and son; and then said a silent thank you to her mother-in-law for that little white lie she told – she might look rested, but she knew she was far from 'perky' this morning no matter what anyone else might think. She was a bit groggy from the rough night; the night before she had fallen into an exhausted sleep, but last night she had tossed and turned a good bit.

Slowly, and with much deliberateness, Annie plunged her spoon into the bowl of yogurt and strawberries, scooped up a bit of the concoction and brought the spoon to her mouth.

# # #

Shortly before 9:30 the back door opened and Alexis and Megan burst in. They were followed a few moments later by their Aunt Jenna. Annie was still sitting at the breakfast table nursing her third cup of coffee. Auggie, Alan and their father were off on a trip to a home improvement store. Earlier Annie had heard Alfred's truck pull out of the drive and wondered if Auggie had actually gone with his brother and father. If he had she was surprised at him – that wasn't the kind of thing he liked to do – but it would give him some alone time with his brother and father.

Megan's plopping down on the chair beside her brought Annie back from her musings about her husband. She noticed that Megan didn't seem quite so starry-eyed this morning. That's probably a good thing, Annie thought. More of what I have to say might sink in if they're not off in the clouds somewhere.

In the kitchen Alexis hugged her grandmother in greeting and asked, "Where's Papa, Nana? The garage is open and his truck's gone."

"He went off to the lumber yard to get some things to finish a project he's working on. He said something about taking Auggie and Alan with him since he doesn't get to see them very often."

"Oh, okay," Alexis said with just a twinge of disappointment. She wandered over and sat beside her sister. "Aunt Annie, Mom wanted me to ask what we should look for in a self-defense class when we sign up for it. We got to looking on the Internet last night for self-defense classes and there are just so many in this area. Some say they teach martial arts, other specify a discipline like Karate or Jiu Jitsu. There's even one that says they teach Krav Maga. We got so confused trying to figure it out. I know it would take a lot of discipline and a long time to get as good at defending myself as you are, Aunt Annie, but I've got to start somewhere. Where?"

"Start right here. Right now, with me. First, learn to avoid trouble, learn to anticipate situations that would require you to fight. Learn how to conduct yourself so that you reduce your chances of having to fight. That's what we are going to work on today.

"Second, learn how to recognize when you have to fight.

"Third, learn how to win a fight quickly by taking away the aggressor's ability to attack. You will notice that while I was in two very violent fights this week; they were each over in five seconds or less. Your Uncle Auggie taught me to get close, get nasty, fight dirty, put them down hurt badly enough that they can't get up.

"Fourth, learn what to do afterwards to keep yourself out of trouble with the law. In the first fight, when those three guys came through the door with guns, I had to stop them before they could shoot me. So I disabled the one I could get to first, put him down so he couldn't get up, took his gun and used it to stop the other two."

Alexis said, "You used it to shoot the other two dead." It didn't sound to Annie as if it was meant as an accusation but more of a statement of fact as the teen understood it.

Annie replied quietly, "I didn't want to kill them, Alexis. I shot them because it was my only option to stop them from attacking before they shot your Uncle Auggie, Aunt Jenna, or me." She paused, and then added, "I wasn't trying to kill the first guy, but I wasn't worried about it either. I hit him in the chest with a palm stride as hard as I know how to hit. It cracked his sternum, broke ribs, and when I slammed my body into him it jammed the broken ribs through his lungs. I also hit him in the larynx as hard as I could, twice to be sure he didn't get up to continue the fight. They were the most vulnerable spots on his body I had access to. I took advantage of surprise and my training. He died of his injuries on the operating table. He gambled and lost when he came through the door intending to rape and slaughter us. I'm sorry he's dead, but I have no regrets and I'd do it again."

Alexis's brow wrinkled, Annie could see she was concentrating, and then she said, "So we should study Krav Maga, right?"

"If you are only going to study one, that's what I'd recommend. You need to know the pedigree of the teacher, to know you have a good one. Is the studio you saw on the internet local?"

"Yes, in fact it seems to be relatively close to our house."

"Okay, get the phone number, let's find out if we can stop and meet the teaching staff. I can tell you in about two minutes if that's a good place to train or not."

Alexis rose from her chair and said, "I'll use Grandpa's computer and get the number and the address. It will only take a minute or two."

"Yeah," Jenna added, "That would be a huge help. Austin and I talked about it at length last night. We thought we lived in a safe neighborhood, but events of the last few days have shown us that nowhere is 100% safe if people want to hurt you. I don't want to have to feel like I need to live in a fortress, or have a 24/7 body guard. That's untenable and unrealistic. I'm not scared now, and I don't ever want to be, but I know that I need to be a lot more careful in a lot of areas. I'm ready to have wisdom imparted upon me."

Annie smiled and gently shook her head at her sister-in-laws final comment. Sometimes Jenna's way with words amused her. "I don't know how much wisdom I'll impart, but I'll give the three of you some pointers. Some things to be aware of, and, hopefully, a few tips on how to avoid trouble. Along the way we may find a decent studio where you can get some training that will let you have a better chance of protecting yourself if you have to. Let me go upstairs and finish getting ready and then we'll head on out. Okay?"

Jenna said, "Definitely okay."

When Annie came back downstairs five minutes later, Alexis handed her a yellow Post-It note with the address and phone number of the Krav Maga studio on it in nearly perfect printing. Annie put the paper in her purse and followed Jenna out to the driveway. Instead of the 'mommy-mobile' that she was expecting – Jenna's silver Mercedes SUV – Annie was surprised to see a dark, metallic blue Audi A7 sitting in the driveway. "Where's your mommy-mobile?" Annie asked and grinned. She had never known Jenna to be without her SUV.

"It's full of the girl's stuff. Nowhere for anyone to sit in the backseats unless you're four- or seven-years-old," Jenna explained. "Austin has the girls today so we swapped cars," she added as she opened the driver's side door.

Annie and Megan went around to the passenger side of the vehicle while Jenna and Alexis got in on the driver's side. As soon as they were in and the last door shut Annie asked, "What's the first thing to do after you get in the car?"

"Fasten your seatbelt?" Alexis asked.

"Nope, anybody else?"

There was silence so Annie said, "Lock the doors."

Jenna said, "The doors will lock automatically when we start to move."

"If a guy runs up, grabs the handle, yanks the door open, and jumps in before you get going, the fact that the doors lock him in, after he holds a knife to your throat or gun to your head and forces you to drive away, isn't much protection."

Jenna's face blanched, she said, "I didn't think of it like that," and she quickly hit the door lock button.

"Getting your head into a defensive mindset is a very important first step. That's where you begin. That's what we are here to work on," Annie said in a tone of voice meant to both nurture and impress. "When you get in the car, lock the doors with your head still up and looking around. When it's clear you aren't going to be attacked, go ahead with getting ready to leave, fasten seat belts, check on passengers, and traffic."

Soon Jenna was backing out of the drive and cruising down the residential streets to the traffic signal at Dundee Road. After making a protected right onto Dundee, Jenna carefully made her way in the moderate traffic to the light at Skokie Boulevard where she made another right to merge into the traffic on the main thoroughfare. While they worked their way through the traffic, Annie told her students to be watchful for anyone following them, how to determine if they were being followed and what to do if they thought they were.

"There's been a remote truck for one of the local TV stations a few vehicles back," Jenna remarked. "It pulled in behind me while we were still on the residential streets in Mom and Dad's neighborhood. It's made every turn and lane change that I've made," Jenna continued with growing alarm. "I noticed it, but didn't think twice about it until just now. Do you think –"

Inwardly Annie cringed; it was a definite possibility that they were being followed. How they could have made the connection between this vehicle and the events of the last two days Annie didn't know, but it was certainly possible. Now was not the time, or these the best students, for a concrete lesson in how to lose a tail. "It's possible," Annie interjected. "Just continue on like normal, but pay attention to the truck and see if they make the next turn, too. If we were heading to the house or somewhere private or secluded I'd tell you to drive to somewhere public and with a lot of people around, or to a police substation. But since we're on our way to someplace public and where, I assume, there is a security force roaming the grounds, we'll just go there. If they follow us there, I'll tell you what to do then."

Jenna nodded and moved over into the far left turn lane.

Annie turned to look over her shoulder. She had two reasons to do so: the first was to check on the girls in the backseat. They didn't appear to be alarmed; instead Alexis was keying something into her phone. That slightly upset Annie, but she had other concerns at the moment. The second reason was to check on the news truck. It was still two vehicles back and had moved into the near left turn lane.

When the left turn signal went green, Jenna began to make the turn. She was third in line for the light. Annie made a quick assessment of the intersection and traffic; since there was no one in the lane to make a right turn off Lake Cook Road onto Skokie, she said to Jenna, "Make a sharp left and go back the way we came on Skokie. The news truck will not be able to make that sharp a turn from the lane it's in."

Once again Jenna nodded and did as Annie had instructed. It was a tight maneuver, but it was accomplished safely.

"Okay, now what?" Jenna said as she accelerated out of the turn.

"We're still going to the mall," Annie replied. "If you know another route there, take that. If not, find a place to turn around and go back the way we were. At least now we know the news truck isn't going to intercept us. Alexis, what are you doing with your phone?" The question to Alexis was a bit accusatory.

Alexis looked up with the faintest hint of a smile. "I'm paying attention, Aunt Annie. I'm taking notes on the notepad app. I was going to share with some of my friends." She held out her phone to show her aunt.

Annie smiled when she read what her niece had jotted down. "Okay," Annie said as she handed the phone back to Alexis. She wasn't exactly happy with Alexis taking time to take notes, but at least she was paying attention.

Jenna made a right back onto Dundee and traversed the little over a mile to South Waukegan where she made another right. In the predominantly commercial district, Annie took the opportunity to talk about general defensive driving rules.

As they approached a stop light Annie noticed Jenna pulled up even with the car next to them. She said, "Okay girls, when you come to a stop at a light, don't stop right next to the car on your left or right. Stay either behind so they can't just turn their heads, look you over, and decide if you are a suitable victim or not. I usually stop two or three feet farther back than they stop so I can have them under surveillance instead of them looking me over. If there is a car ahead of them, and there is room, I'll move far enough ahead so the headrest blocks their view. The bottom line, ladies: when you are out in public it doesn't pay to advertise."

Beginning with the right onto Lake Cook and the few hundred yards to the entrance to the mall and another right, Annie mentioned a few more things and then had Jenna circle the mall as she pointed out even more things to look out for when choosing a parking spot.

"Okay, let's talk about safety while entering the mall. You want a main mall entrance – one with lots of foot traffic. There is safety in numbers. Predators like victims they can isolate in a location away from sources of rescue. The side door entrance may be closer to the store you are going to shop in, but it is also a more isolated location. There are usually trash bins, like at that side entrance over there. Predators can hide in there to pounce on someone that looks like a good victim. They know when the trash trucks arrive. They can drag you back behind that dumpster to do bad things to you. So stay away from side entrances with places for them to take you out of sight.

"I usually drive by the main mall entrance and turn into the lot driving down to the first available parking spot. It may be a longer walk than parking close to the side entrance but it's higher foot traffic and therefore safer.

"A second benefit of that approach is that it gives you a chance to look over the area near the mall entrance. Take the opportunity to look for people out of place, clusters of people that don't belong there, people sitting in cars that aren't getting in or out. It also allows you to clear your path back to the mall entrance because you just drove down it with your doors locked looking for potential aggressors.

"Watch out for places that require you to put your driver's side door next to a van's sliding side door. Especially if the van door doesn't have windows or the windows have been tinted so you can't see inside. Even if it means I walk a bit farther, if I'm in a sedan like this, I will not park between two SUVs.

"Jenna, go ahead out to near the entrance, come back, and try the approach I just suggested."

When she did, as they approached the mall entrance, Annie pointed out a group of young men hanging out near the door and asked the girls to tell her if they thought they were potential threats or not; and how she'd assess them as potential threats: their dress – did it fit in with what one expected for where they were; their posture and facial expressions – did they seem casual and relaxed or tense; and even down to their language if they were speaking.

Alexis said, "I think they are okay. Their clothes are colorful and what I'd expect to see kids that age wearing at my school. No baggies, no un-tucked oversize T-shirts. No Oakland Raiders hats. Plus, they aren't interested in anything but the games they are playing on their phones; none of them are looking around for victims."

Annie said, "Good call! We agree. Jenna, let's park this thing and head inside."

Once inside the upscale mall, Annie stopped and said, "Girls, hold up a minute. If you wanted to pick somebody to pick on, somebody you thought you could get something from, who would you pick that you can see?"

Jenna looked around for a moment and then said, "There are those two women coming down along the far side near the hall that I know goes to a side exit nobody uses. They are on their phones, their gestures tell me they are deep in their conversation and completely unaware of what's going on around them. Am I on the right track?"

"Yes. What else?"

"A guy could jump out of that side hallway and probably get them out of sight of people not directly in line with it in a couple of seconds. There are indentations in the hall that have freight entrances for the stores near the front of the mall, they could get them back in one of those and rob them. Or worse."

"So what should they be doing?"

"Walking heads up, not talking on the phone, coming down just to this side of the big wide hall because that makes the bad guys have to drag them too far to be stealthy about it?"

"Bingo! Alexis, Megan, you got it."

"Yes, Aunt Annie," they said together.

"Okay, now let's walk along here and see what else we see."

"That lady over there, what's she doing wrong?" Annie asked as she pointed to a well-dressed woman in her forties talking on her phone as she carried shopping bags from two high-end stores, one of which was Tiffany's.

Alexis raised her hand, Annie pointed at her, she said, "She's advertising that she has expensive things to steal?"

"Well done, that is exactly what she is doing. What else?"

"She's talking on the phone and not paying attention to where she is and what's around her?" Megan answered.

"You two are doing great. Let's keep going."

They ventured in to Macy's to browse the Juniors Section. Both Megan and Alexis made purchases of new jeans and tops for school. Alexis paid for their purchases with her Macy's card. Annie was surprised that Adam's children would have their own credit cards. Jenna seemed to accept it as normal. While in Macy's Jenna and Annie leisurely browsed the Misses collections, but neither found anything they had to have.

From Macy's Jenna wanted to go to Victoria's Secret. While there Annie found things that she really liked; liked until she saw the price tag. With a sad sigh she placed the hangars back on the rack.

"Why the sad face," Jenna said as she came to stand beside her sister-in-law.

"I can't bring myself to pay this much for something I don't really need," Annie replied and turned to look for Megan and Alexis. She located them, backs to the solid wall separating the sales floor from the fitting rooms; both were on their phones, but looking up frequently and scanning their surroundings. A soft smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

"From what I hear, Auggie owes you, so put it on his card," Jenna responded.

Startled, and a bit alarmed by Jenna's proposal, Annie asked, "What did you hear? And from whom?"

"Brothers talk," Jenna began, "Both Adam and Alan told Austin that Auggie was a bit hard on you yesterday morning when you didn't tell him something that he thought you should have. Adam and Alan wanted to shake some sense into that husband of yours. And then Austin mentioned it to me. We both think that Augs over-reacted and owes you an apology. Either this," Jenna said picking up the hangars Annie had just put back, "Or a nice pair of earrings from Peacock or Tiffany."

"Do you know what it was that I was supposedly not forthcoming about?"

Jenna reached out and gently touched her sister-in-laws left hip. "It's bad isn't it?"

Annie nodded. "He knew I was hurt, just not how much. And yeah, it's pretty ugly. But you also have to know that I was out of line in not being straight with him. I'm still a bit pissed at him for associating this one thing to the relationship in general. But not enough for this." She took the hangars from Jenna and placed them back on the rack and walked away. "We're still trying to figure it out," she added and then went on, "When we're together, I'm in charge of his well-being and safety. I don't take that responsibility lightly, but sometimes it can be overwhelming to let him know the things he needs to know, or might like to know. He's usually pretty in tune to how I'm feeling, but sometimes he gets it wrong just because he can't see my body language and facial expressions. I have to remember to explain at times that I'm angry, or frustrated, or … whatever. And he's learning that he can't expect me to be his eyes 24/7. We love each other enough that we'll get better at it. It was just a tiff. I learned and he learned. I'm not going to escalate our disagreements into a credit card war. That will just make it worse. Our mutual trust is too precious to sacrifice. We're good," she finished with some intensity.

Jenna put up her hands and said, "Okay, okay, I surrender," and laughed. "You are exactly right – charging a get-even thing isn't a good idea, especially with Auggie."

Annie changed the subject, "I'm getting hungry. How about we find someplace to eat? Girls, where do you suggest?"

"How about PF Chang's," Jenna replied.

"Where is it?" Annie asked.

"Right on the other end of the mall. Not very far from Macy's and where we parked," Alexis advised.

"Girls, you like Chinese food?" Annie asked looking at Alexis and Megan.

"Oh yes, and I love their Sesame Chicken lunch," Alexis replied. Megan nodded, too.

"Sounds like we have a winner," Annie said with a bit of enthusiasm. "Jenna, lead the way."

As they walked to the restaurant Annie was pleased to see that while they carried on a conversation with each other, the two sisters kept their heads up and stayed aware of their surroundings. Alexis even pointed out a girl her age to Megan who was going in the opposite direction with her head down, ear phones in, clearly oblivious to anything going on around her and said, "There goes a victim but she just doesn't know it yet."

Megan nodded in agreement. Annie smiled slightly at the sisterly exchange and a moment later Jenna nudged Annie's elbow and gave a pleased thumbs up.

When they got to the restaurant, it wasn't as crowded as Annie had been afraid it might be. As they approached the hostess stand, a young woman who looked to be not much older than Alexis asked, "Four of you for lunch?"

Jenna replied simply and with confidence, "Yes."

Annie was looking around and picked where she wanted to sit and she asked the hostess, "May we sit at that table please?" and pointed at the desired table.

The hostess looked surprised at the request but nodded and said, "Of course. You have memories of a previous meal at that table?"

"No, I haven't been here before, but I would like to sit there."

The hostess erased the mark she'd just made to the seating chart, added a mark to the table her customer had indicated and replied, "No problem, please follow me."

When they got to the table, Annie took the seat she decided was one of the best in the restaurant for defensive purposes. It place her in a position to sit with her back more or less toward a blank wall facing the entrance with a view of the entrance that wasn't blocked by the hostess station, and it also gave her relatively unimpeded access to the kitchen which would make a decent emergency exit. The girls sat facing her, Jenna sat beside her.

After the hostess had left and before their server arrived, Jenna said, "Annie, that was unusual. I've never asked for a particular table. I've turned some down that were too close to the front, or in a bad traffic area, or too near a squalling baby, but never just said 'I want to sit there'. At this point I'm sure there is a reason for it, right?"

Annie looked at the girls and said, "Before I go into the reasons behind my choice of table, do either of you have any thoughts on why I might have done what I did?"

Alexis got up and walked around to stand behind Annie to look at the restaurant from her aunt's point of view. Megan, not to be outdone, joined her. After a few seconds, some people came in the front door to be greeted by the hostess which got a reaction from Alexis who asked, "You wanted to be able to see everybody coming in? Right? So if someone suspicious came in, you would have time to figure out what to do? Or run …" she paused looking around again and then added, "out the back?"

"Alexis, that was brilliant. That is exactly why I picked this seat. What else do you notice about it?"

Megan said, "I can see people coming to the front door before they even get inside." She paused for a moment and asked, "You wanted that too didn't you?"

"Yes! I wanted exactly that. The earlier a potential threat is spotted, the more options you have."

At that moment their server arrived at the table so the girls scurried to sit back down in their chairs.

The server introduced herself as Sarah and asked if they wanted anything to drink before ordering. Annie quickly replied, "I'd like a glass of water with a slice of lemon please."

Jenna followed Annie's lead saying, "Unsweetened ice tea with lemon please."

Alexis said simply and perfunctorily, "Green Tea."

Megan made a face at the Green Tea suggestion and said, "I'd like a Diet Coke please?"

The drink orders complete, she turned to leave and Annie asked, "Sarah, give me a second here," turned to the others and asked, "Are you ready to order?"

The girls nodded, Jenna said, "I am."

Annie turned to the waitress and asked, "Can we order now as well?"

"Certainly," the server said and looked at Annie, "What would you like?"

Annie smiled sweetly and said, "My niece likes the Sesame Chicken Lunch, I'll try that please."

Alexis said, "I'd like that too, please."

Megan said, "I'd like the Almond and Cashew Chicken Lunch please."

Jenna followed her saying, "I'd like the Buddha's Feast Lunch stir fried please."

The waitress said, "I'll get that started," and headed toward the back.

Jenna was looking around and Annie wondered briefly if she was trying to get herself in a situational awareness mind set. Finally Jenna asked, "Annie, is there a reason you wanted to sit a row of tables or closer to that window? It doesn't look at where people might be approaching, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't an accident since there is another table over there that would have the same benefits as this one but it's farther from the window."

"Good observation. I like this one because it offers a second option for escape. It would be possible to break that window with a chair or two people working together with a table and make an exit through which some people might escape. If you make the hole, be the first through it."

Alexis was looking at Annie like something was on her mind. Annie asked, "Whatcha think'en Lexi?"

"How did you get started thinking like this?"

"I remember exactly what started me thinking like this, and I'll tell you about it. I was in college and took an exercise physiology class because I liked to run and stay in shape, and I needed an elective outside my language major. The textbook had a life expectancy questionnaire in the back of it. I looked at it and was surprised to find that of the eight pages of questions, only two of them related to medical history. The rest had to do with lifestyle choices. Things like how often one was in bars, out late at night, the frequency with which one got into confrontations with others in places like bars, or parking lots, walking on unlighted streets, getting inebriated to the point of having to take a taxi home, speeding tickets, fender benders, and so forth. I was surprised there weren't more medical questions until I realized a simple truth – you are dead from the first thing that kills you. It could be related to your genes, or health issues, but until one has avoided other causes of death long enough for the genes to have an effect, lifestyle choices are the determining factor. Sitting there, holding that book, it occurred to me I'd been making some bad choices, not unusual for a college girl, but not well advised either. So I decided to look into things I could do to enhance my chances of living as long as my genes would let me. One of the things on that list was to avoid trouble. Situational awareness is one of the most important tools for doing that. I also decided that I'd prepare myself to handle as well as I could, any trouble that came my way that I couldn't avoid."

Alexis smiled at her and said, "My moment was yesterday when you handled that big gorilla that came into the back yard. I woke up the night before, but I didn't really 'get it' until I saw you yesterday. I wish I still had that video," she added wistfully.

Annie said, "I know. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't take a chance on that getting out on YouTube or something."

Alexis had a look Annie recognized was going to lead to a question she didn't want to deal with, so she changed the subject and asked, "You are sixteen now, have you taken driver's Ed yet?"

That got them off the subject while they ate and Alexis seemed to have either forgotten or lost interest in her question. As they were getting ready to leave, Annie said, "I need to head for the girls room, back in a moment."

Alexis said, "Me too," and followed her to the ladies room. Once there it was obvious she hadn't forgotten her question because she asked, "Aunt Annie, why are you so secretive about your job?"

Annie looked at her for a moment, looked around pointedly at the room with a closed stall door, leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Not here."

Alexis looked surprised, looked around, and then nodded with her finger to her lips. Annie knew sooner or later, this was going to come up again and she needed a good explanation.

When the two of them returned to the table, Annie found that Jenna had paid for lunch. She offered to split the bill but Jenna would have none of that saying, "Lunch is the least we can do to repay you for all this great teaching you've been doing. This has been a real eye opener for me."

"We have the time," Annie said looking at her watch and then pulling the yellow Post-It from her purse. "Jenna, do you know where this address is?"

# # #

**Alfred Anderson**

Alfred arrived back in the kitchen from the back yard where he'd been out to his shop and made a list of materials he had on hand and the things he'd need for his next shop project. The smell of fresh coffee was in the air, and Alan was sitting alone at the breakfast table sipping on a mug of coffee. He looked up as his father came into the kitchen and said cheerily, "Good morning, Dad. There's fresh coffee."

After pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee, Alfred took his usual seat at the breakfast table. "What's up with you this morning, Alan?"

"Just trying to wake up, and waiting for the rest of the people in this house to make an appearance. I heard someone puttering in the master, and the shower in the guest room was running when I came down. I'm betting it's Auggie that's up and moving. Annie looked like she could sleep for a week when she went upstairs last night."

"She has had quite a time of it this visit hasn't she?" Alfred acknowledged.

"Yeah," Alan agreed earnestly. "But what's on your radar for this morning, Dad? Anything I might be able to help you with. It's been a long time since we've had any decent time together. Not like you get with your sons that live close, anyway."

"Not my fault that you've chosen a career that took you so far from home," Alfred chided. Truth be told he was very glad to just have his middle son out of harm's way for a few days; not like career Marines were ever truly out of harm's way, but at least his son wasn't fit enough to be sent 'over there' for a few more weeks. Not until that walking cast was off anyway. And he'd mentioned something about probably needing some physical therapy, too. That would keep him stateside for a while longer. He'd done his tours and so had Alan, but there was a time when one had had enough of combat.

And his youngest son was home, too. He relished that, too. There had been far too many years when Auggie had chosen not to come here. That had been rectified a bit over a year ago. Annie would never know how thankful he was to her for bringing his son back to him. In the short time she'd been in Auggie's life he'd seen more of his son than he had in the previous three years combined. And since he hadn't been home at all in those three years that was saying something. Just as he finished thinking of his youngest son, said son sauntered into the room.

Both Alfred and Alan greeted Auggie with cheerful acknowledgements. Auggie responded with, "Morning, Dad. Alan. What's up?"

Alan responded casually, "We were just making small talk waiting for the rest of the family to show up. What do you have planned for today? We were thinking we might have a guy's morning doing something."

Alfred smiled at the suggestion. It wasn't often that he got to spend time with these two of his sons. He said with as much casualness as he could muster, "I just happen to need a truck load of material for a project I'm planning to build in the shop. It's a playhouse for Austin's kids. I'd really like it if you two could come with me to the lumber yard and give me a hand with the material. I have a sketched plan and a list of material." He pulled a piece of paper from the left front shirt pocket to unfold and check one more time as he talked, "that includes several sheets of plywood, some dimensional lumber, a roll of roofing felt and a couple of bundles of shingles and a few other odds and ends."

Alan answered, "Dad that sounds like fun. What do you think Auggie?"

"I'm not so sure about that," Auggie replied reluctantly.

"It'll be okay, Auggie," Alan said touching his brother's arm lightly. "It's time with Dad. We don't get that much."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll tag along, too then." Alfred noted a brief look of resignation on his youngest son's face.

"Good," Alan said and smiled. "How 'bout we do a drive by Mickey Dee's for an egg sandwich of some sort and beat the rush if we leave after Dad finishes his coffee."

Alfred checked his watch and said, "It's 7:45 already. Alan, how about you put this coffee in a travel mug for me and I'll tell your Mom where we are going, and we all head out? Auggie, you need to tell Annie?"

"She's was just getting up when I left to come downstairs; and she has that Situational Awareness shopping trip planned with Jenna, Megan and Lexi. Mom can catch her up. She'll be fine with that. If she needs anything she can call me on my cell. I think she will be relieved that I'm already doing something truth be told."

Alan said, "Works for me," as he got up to take the coffee cup offered by his father as Alfred left to go tell Abigail what they would be doing. He came back a few minutes later with Abigail hot on his heels. "Slight change of plans boys. No Mickey Dee's for us this morning. Your mother insists on fixing us a 'proper' breakfast."

"Okay," Alan and Auggie said in unison.

As the men waited for Abigail to whip up scrambled eggs with bacon bits in them and some toast, and while they ate, Alfred began to explain how he was going to build the playhouse in modules so that it would be easily transportable to Austin's house once it was completed. While Auggie listened with barely disguised disinterest, Alfred showed the plans from a magazine to Alan and explained his plans.

Just as the three men were finishing their meals, Annie came sauntering into the kitchen and took the remaining seat at the table. The newly married couple exchanged a few remarks while Alan and his father ate the last of their scrambled eggs and toast. After briefly acknowledging Annie's presence, Alan took his and his father's plates to the kitchen and placed them in the dishwasher. Auggie did the same with his dishes, but handed them off to his mother before turning back to find Annie. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Sweetheart, I'm going with Alan and Dad to the lumberyard. Dad want's some help with a load of lumber for a project. He would like some bonding time with his sons that live far away."

Annie touched his hand on her shoulder, pulled him down for a quick kiss and said, "Enjoy the trip Auggie. I have a day full coming up. I'll see you when we get back. You are on your own for lunch."

Auggie gave her a final squeeze before he said, "Love you," and followed his brother and father into the family room. From there they proceeded out toward the garage. Alfred opened the garage door, confirmed that he could get the truck backed out to the street clear of the other cars and headed for the driver's side door.

Alfred turned back to see Alan brush the back of Auggie's hand when they arrived at the bottom of the stairs. This simple act between the brothers still bothered him. Not that Alan offered assistance to his brother, but the fact that Auggie needed it. In the last five years his son had changed, seemed to have come to terms with his blindness; but as a father who loved his son it was still hard to accept at times that his youngest son was now blind.

Auggie took Alan's arm and allowed himself to be guided to the back of the truck on the passenger's side after which he was able to proceed on his own. Auggie remarked, "Still driving the old Ford, at least it feels like it? It's green isn't it?"

"Yup. And it still runs like a watch. Does everything I need a truck for and then some. Plus, being a half ton, it has a nicer ride." He opened the door on the driver's side and slid in as Auggie did the same on the passenger's side.

"And it has this nice bench seat complete with … uhhhhh … transmission hump, but at least it's not a stick or we'd have issues," Auggie added feeling for his seat belt.

Alan waited till Auggie had his belt fastened before sliding into his seat, finding his belt, and shutting the door and commenting, "It fits the three of us just fine."

Alfred turned, fastened his belt with practiced efficiency, turned the key, started it up, and after a quick check of the others, used the mirrors to back out of the driveway. Once they were started down the street he picked up his mug, enjoyed a sip of coffee and drove on autopilot for the familiar trip to the Home Depot in Deerfield. It occurred to him it had been a long time since he'd done something like this with these two sons. They had both been gone so long, and seen so much, this was a rare treat.

Alfred said, "Thanks for coming along, it's been a while since we did anything like this together. I'm heading for the Home Depot in Deerfield," he added for Auggie's benefit.

"Works for me," Auggie said. Alfred couldn't help but notice the lackluster response from his son. He wondered why that was, but, at the moment, let it slide; he hoped that Auggie would make the reason known before much longer.

"Me too," agreed Alan rolling down his window.

Alfred rolled his down too as he observed, "That morning air feels good."

Auggie took a deep breath through his nose and concurred, "It sure does."

# # #

When they arrived at the Home Depot, Alfred parked near the covered loading area by the lumber exit to make it easier to bring the truck close for loading. On the way in Alfred grabbed a lumber cart that had a metal bottom with two round metal bars placed about a foot apart to either side of the center line. He said, "Alan, we can stand the plywood in the middle and then the sheet products on one side and the lumber on the other."

Alan nodded, brushed Auggie's hand and Auggie accepted his offer to guide him. Alfred noticed that the easy, comfortable demeanor of his youngest son had been replaced by uneasiness. Alan seemed to notice it, too. "What's wrong, bro? You've got a death grip on my arm."

"I'm really not comfortable in places like this. It's like a minefield in there for me. I trust you, Alan – I'd be a bit nervous even if I was here with Annie – but there are so many things … and without my cane …"

A look of comprehension passed over Alan's face. "I got it, bro. We'll work it out. I won't let anything happen to you."

Auggie seemed to relax a bit, and they quickly worked out a routine where Alfred pushed the cart and Alan followed behind and guided Auggie. As the trio moved through the store Alfred tried to make sure that Auggie felt a part of the process by handing him the smaller items to examine before placing them in the metal basket attached to the push handle. When they got to the section of the store where the plywood was Auggie stood by the cart to hold it steady as Alfred and Alan worked in tandem to slide the sheet goods onto it. At one point Auggie sighed and Alfred knew he was not liking being left out but didn't say anything.

They were in the checkout line with other carts by the big garage door exit when Auggie said, "I'm beginning to regret not taking the shop class they offered during my rehab, but learning Braille was not easy for me but vital to my future. If Annie wasn't so handy I'd probably take some training, but since we've been married, what she can't fix we just call a repair man for."

Alfred asked with much curiosity, "She's handy?"

"You'd be surprised. She handles simple fixit tasks quite easily. Sometimes I need to explain how to do things to her, but most of the time she has it figured out ahead of time."

Alfred announced with some pride, "Auggie, nothing that wife of yours does would surprise me. After this week, I have no limits on what she might be able to do."

Alan added, "Goes double for me."

It looked to Alfred as if Auggie wanted to change the subject when he asked, "Are we close? I think I hear final checkout sounds by the cart ahead of us."

Alan looked in that direction with surprise on his face and said, "You are amazing Bro. We are indeed next."

The checkout went smoothly in part because Alan had insisted they place the material on the cart so the bar code labels were all grouped on one end. They had the nails, deck screws, roofing felt and shingle bundles organized so they were easily accessible to the checkout cashier. Alan took the keys from his Dad and accompanied by Auggie went to get the truck.

Alfred finished checking out and was waiting for them when they drove into the loading area. Alan suggested, "How about setting the felt, shingles, and hardware on a separate cart so we could load the lumber and stack it to make a level surface to set the sheet good on? Then we can set the roofing felt, shingles, and hardware on the sheet goods to make sure they don't lift while we are driving home."

"That sounds good to me," Alfred replied.

They had it loaded in just a few minutes, climbed in the cab where Auggie had moved to the middle and buckled himself in. Alfred said, "When we get to the house, I'll back in so we can unload this onto my plywood and lumber carts and wheel them into the shop storage area."

As they turned onto the street Alfred asked, "Does Annie like woodworking or just fixit stuff."

Auggie said with great pride, "She is into what she calls 'urban survival fixit mode.' She would only use a shop if she had to fix something in it, otherwise it would gather cobwebs. She's much more into athletics, running, bicycle riding, self defense workouts, along with her interest in art and languages. She's always working on a new language or her skills with one of the one's she's already up to native proficiency in."

"What do you do together?"

"Everything but the languages and art. I can't even begin to pick up a language as quickly as she can. She will start on the language because she has business in that country and when she comes back she is speaking it. She can't write poetry in it, but she can get by without getting lost."

"She said you trained her. How often do you two train together?" Alfred asked.

"We try for two sessions a week, sometimes when she's not on a trip we do three."

"How often is she gone?"

"She loves to travel. I think she'd drag me around the globe with her if I wasn't already working full time. The travel varies. It's really not predictable or routine. Just depends on what the acquisitions department is buying. Sometimes we know weeks in advance, other times we get a couple of hours notice."

"Do you worry about her when she's in some of the places she apparently has to travel to?"

"Yes and no. I've trained her to take care of herself in one-on-one situations, some two-on-one though if the guy was as big as the man in the back yard two at once is probably beyond her skill set unless she can handle them one at a time."

"She took on three –"

"Yes, but from what she told me they were so bunched together she actually had the advantage."

"Three-on-one and she had the advantage?"

"Yes. And before you ask, she had the advantage on that big guy too," Auggie said with some exasperation in his voice. "Dad, Alan, can we talk about something else?"

"Yes Auggie, we can. I didn't mean to be making this stressful for you."

"Thanks. How about you describe to me how you intend to put this play house together so it can be moved in pieces and reassembled?"

Alfred seized the opportunity to share his hobby with his sons and went into a long explanation of the plans of the playhouse that carried them all the way home. He was pleasantly surprised with how quickly Auggie grasped the modular approach he planned once he actually paid attention. When they arrived at the garage, Alfred backed in and Auggie was happy to help unload the truck onto the homemade carts with a little coaching from Alan.

A few minutes later they were all heading toward the house. As the brother's preceded their father Alan remarked lightly to Auggie, "Back in one piece, bro. Not a hair on your head was harmed. Glad you came along now?"

"Yeah, you did a good job of keeping me safe in Home Depot. Thanks," Auggie said complimentarily. "And yeah, I'm glad that I came with you and Dad. It was nice just the three of us. It has been a long time since we've been able to do that; and it may be a long time before we get to do something like this again. Now, this morning's activity has left me hungry. I wonder what Mom has planned for lunch?"

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Two more chapters and this one will be done. Hoping that something in Season Three sparks something, but right now nothing is in the pipeline. <strong>


	14. An interesting Afternoon

**Here's an early update. The next to the last chapter. The last chapter will post as soon as I get it back from Mandy58. I don't want to drag this out any longer now.**

**Thanks to Mandy58 and fbobs for their contributions.**

**Hats off to Matt Corman and Chris Ord for a spectacular beginning to the third season.**

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><p><strong>Abigail Anderson<strong>

Abigail thought it was a nice break in the weekend. The weather had cooled slightly from the day before but it was still very pleasant, the sun wasn't beating down, in fact it was slightly overcast, but not enough to make the deck unpleasant. The house was quieter. Her newest daughter-in-law, Annie, and what she called 'the girls", Alexis, Megan, and Jenna, were off to do what Annie called a Situational Awareness tutorial. Abigail smiled as she remembered the star look the two granddaughters had focused on their Aunt Annie after they saw her stop that ruffian from attacking their grandfather. That look had sparked the Situational Awareness tutorial when the girls wanted to be just like their 'totally awesome Aunt Annie.'

She could hear her husband and her sons Alan and Auggie talking on the back deck through the screen door while she put the finishing touches on their lunch. She'd prepared four nice plates of tuna salad sitting on nice crisp lettuce. She sprinkled them with chopped hardboiled egg, and then placed the plates on a tray with the glasses of an excellent sweet tea with slices of lemon. She gave the tray one last check. Silver? Yes. Napkins? Yes. Oh … she figured out what she was missing, added the pepper and sea salt grinders; decided the tray was perfect, picked it up and headed for the patio.

Alan saw her coming, jumped up and made it to the door as quickly as his walking cast let him to simplify her passage out onto the deck with the rather large tray. Abigail rewarded him with a smile, said, "Thank you," and was rewarded in turn by the smile on his face as he looked at the salad, which she knew was one of his favorite lunches. Fred made a place for her to set the tray, and in short order they were enjoying the lunch.

Auggie finished first. He wiped his lips with the napkin and said, "Thanks Mom. That was delicious, and just right. If you guys don't mind, I'm going to head on upstairs and take a nap. I've been a bit short of sleep the last two nights and need to catch up while it's quiet."

Abigail asked, "Is Annie okay."

"She's going to be fine mom, it's just rough the first few nights after … She tosses and turns and I want to be there for her no matter what, but I need to catch up on my sleep while I have the chance."

"Fred told me it costs her way more than the bruises on her body. I think she's extraordinary Auggie." Abigail could see Auggie getting uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking and added, "I'm so glad she has you to hold her at night. Go catch up on your sleep. I'll take your plate in on the tray when I get the rest of them."

"Thanks mom. Dad. Alan. See ya in a while."

"Have a good nap, Bro," Alan said.

Abigail finished her tea while she waited till Auggie was in the house so she didn't cause him to stay and miss a chance to catch up on his sleep. When she thought he was out of ear shot, she said, "Alan, your dad and I were talking about how we might defend ourselves if anything like that happened again and our one woman Annie Army wasn't here to get between us and the bad guys. We can't fight like her. Or you. Or even Auggie. Not only are we getting slower, and more fragile, and much slower to heal, we never did know how to fight. Talking about it between us, it's pretty clear we've lead rather sheltered lives in terms of physical violence. Do you have any thoughts on the subject?"

Alan looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, "I'm no expert on home-defense, my training is more in military strategy, sniper tactics, but I have thought about it some when I've had apartments that were is rough parts of town. There is a really good book one of my buddies bought for his wife and family to read. I borrowed it and read it one evening. I'll get the name of it for you … ah … it's 'Strong On Defense' by a man named Sanford Strong. It was written as a tutorial to help keep off-duty LAPD officers and their families alive during off-duty time."

Alan paused, Abigail said, "Can you wait a second, I'm going to grab a pencil and paper to make some notes."

Alan looked surprised and said, "You're serious about this."

"You bet I am. This week was a brutal lesson in reality. If chance hadn't played into our hands with Annie in the exact right place to defend us both times, we'd have had a terrible tragedy. She's leaving for DC with Auggie and you are going back to train snipers. Fred and I are going to be here by ourselves again."

"Okay, you go get your paper and pencil, Dad and I will clean this up and refill the ice tea."

With Fred and Alan piling the lunch dishes and the other things on the tray, Abigail left to go retrieve the pad and pen from beside the kitchen phone. Alan followed his mother into the house and carried the laden tray into the kitchen. As his mother rummaged in a drawer in the kitchen peninsula, Alan deposited the tray beside the sink, and then turned to open the refrigerator door to grab the pitcher of iced tea. After locating the sought after notebook and writing instrument, Abigail followed her son back out onto the deck where he set about re-filling everybody's glasses.

Abigail sat down in her place just as Alan finished pouring the tea; she had Alan repeat the title and author of the book as she carefully printed it out on the top line of the first clean page in the notebook.

Alan waited until his mother had finished jotting down the title and author and then said, "A lot of what Annie told you yesterday is in that book. She is absolutely right; making the commitment to yourself to fight back is the most important element of defending yourself. Nothing else matters if that hasn't happened."

"I'm there Alan," Fred said firmly. "As Abby and I discussed last night, being a willing victim just makes no sense at all. Early this morning I looked on the Internet and it turns out there are a number of reports analyzing criminal versus victim encounters that show fighting back leads to much more favorable outcomes than not fighting back. Right after that we had to agree that we had no clue how to be anything else but a victim. We've been told all our lives by officialdom that being a willing victim is best. I see now that's just plain preposterous. Glencoe may have the one of the lowest crime rates in the country, I know it's very, very low, but the statistics don't matter when bad guys come through the door, or back yard gate, with evil intent as we learned, twice, this week."

Abigail added firmly but with awe for her newest daughter-in-law, "Annie demonstrated one way to deal with it, but there is no way Fred and I can even figure out what she did, even while we watch her do it, never mind actually do something like that. Until this weekend that level of self-defense wasn't something I could even conceptualize, never mind contemplate doing, and I still can't."

Alan waited for his mother to finish her thoughts and said, "I am not sure I could do what she did like she did it – I don't think I can move as quickly as she can – that woman has really fast hands and reflexes – she gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'the quick and the dead'. I'm no stranger to hand-to-hand combat training, but not like the Special Operations guys. Nothing like Auggie had. Annie had a third degree black belt, not exactly your everyday thing, and yet it took Auggie training her twice or three times a week when they had time, and nearly three years for her to get to her present level of competence. She's a lethal weapon standing there barefoot in shorts and a T-shirt. So is Auggie if he gets his hands on you. I'm not."

Fred asked with a bit of alarm, "So what do we do?"

"I think the thing to do is to develop a set of home invasion scenarios and make a plan for how you will respond to them. Divide the house up into zones. Make a plan for how to react depending on where you are when something happens. And to decide what you will do to make up the difference between how Annie can deal with invaders and your own physical capabilities. If you are going to fight back enough to make them leave, you need some way to make up the force gap."

Fred asked with a bit of surprise, "Are you talking about a gun?"

"Maybe. Yeah; probably. But maybe a shotgun? Not a 12 gage, maybe a 20 gage. I'd have to look into that. Ask Auggie or Annie. I don't know how much Annie knows about guns, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn she's as good with them as she is with her hands. Don't ask me why I think that."

Fred responded quietly, confidentially, "You think it for the same reason we think it, but we aren't going to talk about it, right?"

A slight grin of acknowledgement raised the corners of Alan's mouth. "Right," he said nodding his head. "Okay, back to what to do. There is also the option of having a safe room built in. This house has back stairs which are unusual in this day and age. You can get from the back of the house to upstairs without having to use the main staircase."

"I haven't gone up or down those stairs in several years," Fred said. "They are sort of narrow and steep but they lead to what was originally intended to be the maid's quarters I think. We've used it as a storage room."

Alan nodded and said, "I think if you talked to the right architect they could figure out how to move a couple of walls on the second floor to make a small safe room you could retreat to while waiting for the 911 response."

Abigail asked with concern, "Well, if I'm in the kitchen that works pretty well. What else could I do?"

Alan sighed slightly. "I don't know … how about go out the back door, get to a neighbor's house and call 911? Or set off a car alarm and go to the neighbor's house and call 911?"

"I wouldn't want to leave Fred upstairs in the office. How could I warn him to shut and lock the door?"

Fred furrowed his brow in thought. "We need to go at this systematically. I think we might work through it on our own to develop a basic understanding; but there must be a professional we could call to help us put together a plan. Maybe upgrade the alarm system with some panic buttons strategically placed; a plan on how to act when it goes off depending on where we are."

Alan responded thoughtfully, "I read someplace that one of the big problems with burglar alarms is the number of false alarms they cause. Police frequently don't take them seriously. But that doesn't mean they are a bad idea; especially the panic alarm that you set off yourself because you have seen the danger – those would have a much lower false alarm rate."

Fred said, "When I was looking on the internet this morning, the statistics I've been finding say fighting back is better than not fighting back. There was a recent report that analyzed the home defense scenarios that have been published in the NRA magazine," he paused.

"National Rifleman," Alan interjected.

"Yes, National Rifleman. Apparently every month for years they have had a page of true armed home-defense stories taken from newspapers and magazines. They analyzed them and it turns out the people defending themselves weren't Annie Oakley, they were seldom trained. But the one thing they all had in common was they had ready access to a gun, pointed it in the right direction and at a distance of five to seven feet fired two shots to end the encounter. So it isn't necessary to be some sort of gun nut to defend yourself with a gun."

Alan thought a moment and said, "I am an expert with military weapons, side arms and rifles anyway, not artillery, and rules of engagement. But now that I think about it, I have very little knowledge of civilian home-defense and the laws that govern it. I'd be willing to bet somebody has written a book on it though, probably several people have. The question is how does one know which book to believe?"

"Do you think Annie might know?"

"I'd sure ask her. She just might. I wouldn't be surprised by anything good that woman might know, If you'd told me two days ago she could take down an angry 285 pound barroom brawler and render him incapable of getting up in less than two seconds, I'd have said you were smoking something. Today, different story. So yeah, I'd sure ask her. People who are as adept with violence as she is have to know when they can and can't pull their own trigger so to speak," Alan replied.

"I hadn't thought about it that way. What you are saying is that people with her level of competence are much like someone carrying a concealed weapon – they need to clearly understand when they can and can't use it. So yeah, she's probably a good person to ask. I bet it wasn't an accident that she only brought the guy yesterday down and, in her words, contained him. The night before the circumstances were quite different and so was her response," Fred commented.

Alan said with a bit of seriousness, "I heard her make a point to the policeman the night she stopped – killed – the three armed young men that she was 'in fear for her life or grievous physical injury to herself or her family, or her blind husband.' The policeman seemed to accept that as the justification for her use of lethal force. Yesterday she told him, the same officer in fact, that big guy wasn't a lethal threat to her so she just took him down and contained him. She made that decision in a split second. According to Auggie she could have killed the big guy yesterday before he hit the ground and decided to contain him instead. A person with a gun has to make similar choices. I'd be willing to bet Austin or Tony would know exactly where the rules of engagement for civilian self-defense in the state of Illinois are codified."

Fred nodded and said, "I will definitely ask Tony. If anybody on the planet should know the rules it's an Assistant District Attorney. We should take those rules into account when making our plan. I read someplace that there was a recent Supreme Court decision that the laws saying we can't have a handgun in the house for self-defense are unconstitutional. I need to ask Tony about that as well."

Abigail looked at the notebook on the table in front of her and then said, "I've got a page-and-a-half of notes here. And this is just related to protecting ourselves here at home with doors and windows closed and locked. Annie is out there giving the girls an ear-full, probably nearly a book, full of tips, on how to be alert enough to avoid trouble when out and about. Here, we have made the choice to live in the most crime free neighborhood around, but we still need to have a plan for how we answer the door at night. Clearly, opening it to ask who is there, when we aren't expecting anybody is a prescription for disaster. So we need a plan for that."

Fred nodded in agreement. "I could use some more of this tea. Shall I go get a fresh pitcher?"

Alan replied casually, "None for me, Dad. In fact I need to go use the restroom, been procrastinating in honor of our interesting conversation."

Abigail gathered the glasses and just as the guys were leaving to head inside she said, "Guys, thanks for all the good ideas. I had no idea where to start. This was very helpful."

**Annie Anderson**

Jenna looked at the small, yellow piece of paper that Annie had just handed her, "I know what street that is, but I'm not at all sure where along it that particular address is. But there's OnStar in the car. We can ask it how to get there."

"Okay," Annie said enthusiastically, "let's go find this studio and check it out. That is if you ladies still want to learn what to do if you can't avoid trouble?"

Alexis looked at her aunt like Annie was silly. "Do we still want to learn how to defend ourselves? You really have to ask that, Aunt Annie? Of course we want to learn how to do that. Anderson's have good genes. I want to live a long life. I can't do that if I'm … well … dead from something I couldn't avoid." She grabbed her Aunt Annie's hand and began to pull her toward the restaurant's entrance.

Annie smiled broadly at her niece's enthusiasm and followed Alexis toward the door. "Ladies, are you coming, too?"

"Of course," Jenna added with almost as much zeal as Alexis had shown.

They exited the restaurant, turned back into the mall and quickly made their way back to Austin's Audi parked near the main entrance to Northbrook Court. As they quickly traversed the mall's corridors each of Annie's student's pointed out different people – men and women – who weren't paying much, if any, attention to what was going on around them, or were advertising that they'd shopped in the higher end of the high-end shops in the mall. Annie's three students had good and thoughtful solutions to the distinctive bags problem. Annie liked Jenna's suggestion to carry a colorful canvas or nylon tote and place purchases in it rather than use the store's bag.

Once they were all safely in the car and the doors locked, Jenna punched the OnStar button on the rearview mirror and gave the address to the pleasant lady who answered the summons for assistance. Soon, with the automated assistance of OnStar, Jenna was winding her way through the mid-afternoon traffic to the address on Skokie Boulevard that Alexis had given Annie earlier that morning.

As Jenna pulled off the road and into the parking lot of the strip mall indicated as the location of the desired address, Annie waited to see how her sister-in-law would handle the parking. One end of the mall was congested with cars but the other was not. Jenna pulled in to the lot and slowly cruised from one end of the shopping center to the other, turned around and slowly cruised back to the end of the building that was sparsely populated with parked vehicles. Annie allowed a brief smile to turn up the corners of her mouth before she asked, "Why did you do that maneuver, Jenna?"

"Two reasons. First I was checking the place out for potential trouble. I didn't see anything that alarmed me. Second, I was looking for the studio. As you heard, all OnStar said was that it was ahead on the right and this was the location it said. There are several businesses in here and I wanted to know where I was going before I parked and got out," Jenna replied.

"Good thinking," Annie said in a nurturing and approving tone. She was so glad to see Jenna taking the advice to heart. But she also wondered if she'd revert to old, and potentially dangerous, habits once she wasn't around. She turned to Alexis and Megan in the backseat, "Do you understand what your Aunt Jenna is doing and why?"

"Same as you had her do at Northbrook Court. Looking for potential trouble and clearing the way to a safe parking spot," Megan piped up.

"Good," Annie encouraged. "I'm glad that you've been paying attention even though you're not drivers yet."

"I've been paying attention," Alexis interjected, "so that I can let Mom know how to be safe when she's in the car. I think she already does some of the things you've suggested. I know she avoids parking beside panel vans."

"With her work history, I sort of thought your Mom would be safety conscious. It's good to know that she does though," Annie said.

Jenna had pulled in to a parking spot at the far end of the strip mall and in front of a business called Aronoff Martial Arts. Since there were no other cars parked at this end of the shopping center Annie wondered if they were open. Sometimes business closed for holiday weeks.

Since the name of the business didn't actually say 'Krav Maga' Annie also wondered if this was the place and asked Alexis, "Is that the Krav Maga studio you saw on the internet?"

Alexis looked and said, "Yes. Yes it is. I didn't call them to see for sure, but they were the closest place that indicated they taught Krav Maga. I can't tell if they're open though."

Jenna swiveled her head around and checked all of her mirrors before she put the car in park and turned off the engine. She opened her door and asked, "Shall we see if they are open?"

"Yes, let's see if they are there and have time to talk to us. Or maybe make an appointment for us tomorrow."

As they approached the storefront, Annie saw a girl at a desk inside the glass door, so they went in. The receptionist said, "Welcome to the Aronoff School of Self-Defense. How may I help you?"

The girls looked at Annie who said, "Hi, my name's Annie Anderson. My sister-in-law and nieces are looking for a place to get some good basic self-defense training. I was wondering if you have any instructors here that I could interview?"

The girl smiled, stood up and said, "You are in luck, Mr. Aronoff is here. He does all the training himself. I'll let him explain how it all works and his credentials. Follow me."

The girl led them back through a double door into a large room that had mats on the floor, but around the outside of it were all sorts of what Annie recognized as sets for training to respond realistically to attacks. Out of pure instinct Annie walked in front of the group and suddenly stopped motioning the girls to stop.

"Mr. Aronoff, you can come out now," she said looking at a large piece of furniture.

A man stepped out from behind the armoire and said, "You have me at a disadvantage, you know my name, and I don't know yours. And how did you know I was there?"

Annie saw a medium sized man, obviously fit, receding hairline, more gray than not. He had a pleasant, confident, but not arrogant, expression.

She liked him immediately and said, "I'm Annie Anderson, and I saw your shadow move slightly on that white dresser across the room set."

He smiled and said, "Anderson, that name is familiar. Are the rest of you Andersons?"

Jenna and the girls all replied, "Yes."

Annie said, "This is my sister-in-law, Jenna Anderson and two of my nieces Alexis, sixteen, and Megan thirteen."

Annie could see him putting it together and he said, "My name is Eli Aronoff. I'm a former Israeli Special Forces Soldier, though that ended ten years ago. I've been teaching one-on-one self-defense since then. Would I be wrong to presume you are from the Anderson household where that home invasion was so effectively but violently repulsed night before last?"

Annie said, "No, you wouldn't be wrong to presume that."

He looked them over and said, "Please don't think me rude, but would I be wrong to assume you, Annie, were the one that stopped them?"

Annie hesitated for a moment and cautiously asked, "What makes you think that?"

Eli Aronoff looked Annie square in the eyes but before he could address her, Alexis asked, "How did you know?"

He offered his hand to Annie and answered Alexis, "I saw it in your Aunt's walk and how she addressed the room when she led you in here. I am honored. Who was your Master's Level trainer?"

"August Anderson, my husband."

"That name is familiar to me also," the instructor said and paused for a moment of thought. "I think that he was in the paper not long after I opened this school. Special Ops, injured in the war." He paused again and then added, "He was blinded?"

"Yes." Annie wasn't sure she liked the direction this conversation was taking, but she couldn't think of a graceful way to stem its tide. She liked the man and his perceptiveness, but the way he'd pieced things together was scary. Troubling.

"I'm surprised you don't train them yourself. That said what would you like to know?"

"Do you have a course of instruction that my sister-in-law and two nieces could take to learn basic self-defense? Auggie and I would train them ourselves but we live and work in DC."

"Got it. Yes, I do. Follow me and I'll give you a syllabus of the courses I offer. Might there be others in the family that would be interested?"

Annie, now thankful the focus was off her and Auggie, said, "I think pretty much everybody is interested. They were all in the house when the home invasion happened but only Jenna here, and my brother-in-law Alan actually saw what happened. We tried to keep the rest of the family away from the hallway. It was pretty ugly. There was a second incident the next day in the back yard with everybody there –"

"When that big bruiser who's in the paper as a bar-room brawler came into the backyard and got taken down before he could land a punch?"

"Yes." Annie was once again uncomfortable with the perceptiveness of this instructor.

"You again." It was a statement.

"Yes."

"You are a black belt?"

"Third degree in TaiQuanDo, also in Krav Maga. I started Krav Maga when my blind husband could take me down almost one-handed even with my fresh third degree black belt in TaiQuanDo. He taught me the difference between sport and fighting to the death. He taught me how to fight to stay alive including all the lethal moves he knows. I used one night before last."

Eli Aronoff looked at her for a minute and said, "He taught you well. I would not like to fight you."

Megan said with unbridled exuberance, "Mr. Aronoff, my Aunt Annie is so awesome. She stopped that big guy in two seconds. He tried to punch PaPa, my grandfather, and the punch never landed." As soon as the words were out of her sister's mouth Alexis froze and a look of concern came over her; she lightly punched Megan in the arm and glared at her. Megan's eyes got big and her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

It took all of Annie's deception training to keep from showing the alarm she felt.

"I have no doubt young lady. Let's look at the syllabus and see what your awesome Aunt Annie thinks of it." He turned to Annie and said, "Come with me." He looked at the rest and said, "Follow us." As he walked he continued the conversation, "I don't like classes bigger than four normally, and I insist on a parent being here when I'm teaching their kids to fight mean and dirty."

"I'd expect that. Alexis and Megan's parents as well as my mother- and father-in-law are probably interested. Jenna, is Austin interested?"

"Yes, definitely. He's had a change in heart and now believes that compliance is not always the best course of action. So, yes, we both are."

Eli Aronoff reached a desk in the corner, picked up a document printed simply on white paper, nothing fancy, held it out towards Annie and said, "Take a look at this and let me know what you think."

Annie took the offered document and started reading it.

Mr. Aronoff said, "You were all together at the party so presumably you all get along with each other. I have no problem with setting up a family class schedule that puts the men together and the women together, or one that puts family groups together. I need to know any medical problems in advance so I can teach around them. I think the senior Mr. and Mrs. Anderson should be in a class by themselves because of their age."

Jenna stepped in while Annie was busy reading and offered, "We are all in remarkably good health. Mom and Dad are in their seventies but they are active and not mobility limited other than what is normal for their age. In fact they are rather spry for their age. They aren't overweight and can walk for quite a long ways before getting tired."

"I think you folks would be fun to teach. You will be motivated to practice; you have others in the same household to practice with. I'll teach you how to practice without hurting each other which means you will need some sort of training dummy because we like you to hit as hard as you can, which means you can't hit each other. In the first class I give suggestions of products that can be used in training. I don't sell any myself here."

Annie finished scanning the syllabus and said, "Mr. Aronoff, this looks perfect. Please give me a small stack of your cards so I can get the word out to the family. Your schedule may be getting crowded with Andersons."

"I'd like that. If this works out Ms. Annie Anderson, you and your husband will have to stop by with your family members to see a lesson next time you are in town for a visit. Maybe spar with them. I need to let you people get back to your day, I have two students due in a few minutes."

Jenna and the girls turned and started walking out talking among themselves. Mr. Aronoff held back a little prompting Annie to say, "I wouldn't like to do any sparring right now. I'm rather bruised and sore from two nights go."

The Krav Maga instructor looked in the direction of the girls heading out and slowed down, almost stopping. He said, quietly, "Left hip and torso, right forearm, and maybe a bit of pain in your lower back from the guy in the back yard I'd guess." He responded to her astonished look adding, "I train one of the doctors that tried to repair the damage you did. He called me after he got out of surgery and said the young man had met up with another one of my students. That was the first I'd heard of the incident, but later that day I caught the news. He said the guy was busted up pretty bad, badly cracked sternum, several broken ribs, ripped up lungs, crushed larynx. He said he's seen people hit by a truck who were in better shape. I don't think he knew the damage was all done by a hundred-fifteen pound woman."

"I'd just as soon he didn't find out. I can't be in the paper, my husband has a classified job at the Pentagon and it wouldn't do for him to have his picture or name or mine in the paper. That's why there were only vague specifics given."

"No problem. He thinks it must have been done by someone trained by the military. There was an allusion to veterans in the family being on site for both incidents that were mentioned in the local paper this morning."

"That is correct; there were two veterans and one active duty military there. My active duty brother-in-law could have stopped them, but I was closer. You have to know that because of my husband's classified position with the federal government, there is a federal gag order placed on those who know of these incidents. I hope that I don't need to have one formally served on you. You have been far too perceptive for my comfort," Annie stated firmly. Once she got to somewhere where she could do so with complete privacy, she knew she had to call Agent Parker and let her know that someone had put two-and-two together in a way that made her very uncomfortable. Despite what she'd just said, Annie had a strong feeling that Eli Aronoff would soon be getting a visit from the FBI's Agent Parker.

"This will remain between us. I can assure you of that," Eli Aronoff replied confidentially.

They had caught up with the girls at the front door. Mr. Aronoff said, "Thank you all for visiting. It was my pleasure to meet all of you, and an honor to meet with you Ms. Annie Anderson. You are an amazing woman."

They all said their thanks and headed out to the car; Annie stepped to the door first and looked before they left. As they walked out the two nieces each grabbed a hand and Megan said, "He thought you were awesome Aunt Annie. He did. I could tell."

Annie said, "I don't know, he's a former Special Operations soldier like your Uncle Auggie -"

Jenna interrupted and said, "Annie, he respected you. He made no fast moves in your direction, he stayed out of your space, he made no demands of you; he treated you as a total equal. He sees you as his peer. I'm impressed."

As uncomfortable as she was with the man's knowledge of her and the incidents, Annie said, "Girls, I think you have found where to start. Take these cards and give them to your Mom and Dad. Jenna, here's one for Austin. I'll give the rest to Mom and Dad to pass out to the family as they see them."

The drive back to the Anderson household was uneventful. Jenna practiced not stopping next to other cars, observed that they were not being followed by news vans or anything else, and the girls kept looking around.

Finally, Alexis said, "Situational awareness is basically staying alert to what is going on around you, and picking your places so you have the best chance to see things coming and avoid them altogether."

Annie said, "A-plus. That is exactly what it is."

Jenna pulled in the driveway and almost before the car stopped, the girls were on their way inside to share with whoever would listen what they had learned.

Jenna picked up the packages from the car, locked it with her remote, and joined Annie heading for the back door which had just been unlocked by Fred to let the girls in after they gave him a hug. Jenna said, "Annie, thanks. This has been a real eye opener. I'll share it with Austin and get the books you recommend. Hopefully we can schedule a good time to begin the defense classes you recommended."

Annie reached over to touch her, gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and said, "Thanks for listening. And don't be afraid to run. If a big guy comes at you and you have any way out, run like hell."

Jenna grinned. "You can bet on that."

As soon as they were in the house, Annie excused herself and headed upstairs with the excuse of needing to freshen up. She needed to do that, but her main objective was to call Agent Devlin Parker.

As she entered the guest room, Annie couldn't help but notice her husband curled up on the bed apparently sound asleep. A brief wave of guilt washed over her as she quietly closed the door behind her; since Auggie wasn't usually a nap taker, she must have kept him awake with her bouts of sleeplessness that morning. Trying not to disturb her slumbering husband Annie tiptoed toward the bathroom. She'd make her call to Agent Parker from there.

"How was the class in Situational Awareness?" Auggie asked as he swung his legs out of the bed and sat, rubbing his eyes, on the edge of the bed.

Wondering once again how he always seemed to know when she around, Annie replied softly, "The students were quite attentive and I think I've got them better able to avoid potential problems. I'm not real sure about the girls, but Jenna put my suggestions to immediate use. But we have a problem," she added as she changed direction to sit on the bed beside her husband.

"What kind of problem do we have? Have you created some sort of monster?" Auggie teased.

"I wish," Annie began and sighed in frustration, "it was that simple. After lunch we stopped at a local martial arts studio that advertised that it taught Krav Maga. Nice facility, but the owner slash instructor was way too perceptive and linked me to the incidents. I'd already given my name so I couldn't quite evade the issue. And the girls rather let the cat out of the bag, too."

Auggie sat up straight. "Oh, shit. I need to have a strong talk with those girls."

"And I need to talk to Agent Parker; she needs to be informed and probably make a visit to the studio with a copy of the gag order. I was sort of cornered Auggie."

"Not your fault," Auggie said as he wrapped a comforting arm around his wife. He pulled Annie into a soft hug and laid his head on top of hers. "Do you have SA Parker's number?"

"Yeah," Annie admitted as she opened her purse and pulled a card from her wallet. With Auggie close by her side Annie punched the number to Agent Parker into the keypad on her iPhone.

A few moments later the call was answered, "Agent Parker," in an officious sounding voice, but Annie recognized it right off.

"Agent Parker, Anne Anderson here. We need to talk. Something happened this afternoon that you need to know about."

"Oh-oh. That doesn't sound good. What happened? Another one of the boy's fathers come calling?"

"Worse than that," Annie relayed. "One of my sisters-in-law and my teenaged nieces wanted to take some martial arts training. When we went to check a studio and an instructor out, he knew of the events and put two-and-two together once he learned we all were Andersons. He knew it was me who defended the family and he knows my name. I cautioned him that I don't want this stuff known, but I'm afraid he might inadvertently leak the information. Just like the nieces did."

"I've got this," Agent Parker said emphatically. "Tell me though, how did he know? Do we have other leaks to plug?"

"No. No leaks. He'd heard a newscast that mentioned that an incident happened at an Anderson house. When we walked in and introduced ourselves as Andersons, I could see him begin to associate us with the news story. Then, because of the way I moved and acted he came to the conclusion I was the one that stopped the intrusion. By then it was almost too late to deny it," Annie explained in a conciliatory tone. It wasn't really anyone's fault. Just a too perceptive martial arts instructor.

"Okay," Agent Parker acknowledged. "I've got the picture. Do I need to come by and talk to the girls?"

"No," Auggie interrupted. "I've got that covered. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again with them. I wasn't there, but the way that Annie explained it I think they just confirmed what the man had already concluded. I'll make sure they know they can't do that. I don't think you need to put the fear of god into them. I can do that for you."

"I agree. You can probably do that in a less officious manner than I. It's your safety that's at stake so you'd have more cred than anyone. Now who and where do I need to serve some papers?"

After she gave Agent Parker the necessary information, Annie gave Auggie a one-armed hug and told him softly, "I think the girls are still here if you want to talk to them. I haven't heard a car pull out of the driveway since I've been up here."

Auggie gently kissed his wife and said, "I do need to instill upon them the need for keeping quiet about some things. I'll be gentle but firm. The heavy handed approach isn't going to work."

Annie was surprised to find Auggie still in the bedroom when she came out of the bathroom after splashing some cool water on her face and taking the time to use the bathroom. Together they descended the stairs and down the main hallway. When they entered the kitchen Megan and then Alexis announced, "Good afternoon, Uncle Auggie." They were sitting at the breakfast table with their Aunt Jenna, who also said, "Good afternoon, Auggie." They were each sipping on tall glasses of iced tea.

Annie pulled out one of the tall stools at the end of the kitchen peninsula and hopped up on it. Auggie continued to lean against the counter beside his wife. "How was the afternoon of shopping? I see that Annie didn't bring anything up to the room. Did everyone else find something?"

Alexis and Megan exchanged embarrassed looks, and then Alexis spoke. "Uncle Auggie, Megan and I did something bad this afternoon –"

"And that was? Overspending on your Dad's credit card?" Auggie teased. He continued to slouch against the counter.

"Oh, much worse than that," Alexis blurted out. "We sort of told something that we weren't supposed to."

Annie couldn't help but notice the frightened demeanor of the two girls. Auggie's stance straightened just a bit, but he still seemed casual about the girls' revelation. "Oh?" he said. "Tell me what happened?"

"We went to a martial arts studio up close to where we live. The man there guessed that it was Aunt Annie that stopped those guys the other night. I just wanted to let him know how awesome my Aunt Annie was and sort of blurted that out. I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that I shouldn't have done that. Aunt Annie got all bothered by my saying she was awesome even though she tried real hard not to show it. I'm sorry Uncle Auggie. I know I did wrong, but the man seemed to know already –"

Beside her Annie felt Auggie draw up to his full height; she looked up at him and saw him close his eyes and heard him sigh exaggeratedly. "It's a bit late for 'I'm sorry'," Auggie said sternly, but in a tone that wasn't condemning. "I know your parents brought you up not to lie, but sometimes that's the only thing you can do. I don't think any major harm's been done, but we really need to keep your Aunt Annie's awesomeness in the family. We all know how awesome she is, but it could really hurt me if this got out again. And I happen to know that you think I've been hurt enough." With that Auggie turned and went to the refrigerator to retrieve a beer. From there he sort of sauntered into the family room.

Annie watched her husband stroll out of the room surprised at the very low-key approach he'd taken with the girls; and the tact that he'd used – he didn't often use his blindness as a point in an argument or discussion. _One of these days,_ Annie thought, _that husband of mine will make a wonderful father._ Glancing over at the breakfast table, she was equally surprised at the girls; they sat mouths slightly agape watching their uncle. Apparently they were expecting something other than what they'd gotten from him; frankly so was she. Finally Annie hopped down off the stool and went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of tea from the pitcher in the refrigerator.

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><p>Th<strong>anks for reading.<strong>


	15. Home Again

**Here's the final chapter to his story.**

**My sincere thanks to fbobs and Mandy58 for their assistance in this chapter and the story as a whole. **

**I only own my own storyline and version of Annie and Auggie.**

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><p>Auggie braced himself for the day; not that he expected anything that would be jarring to him, but a good spy was always prepared. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he scrubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heels of his hand, and then ran his hands through his shaggy mop of hair. He made a mental note that when he got back home to DC he'd have to make an appointment to get his hair trimmed; it was getting a bit too long for his liking even though no one had yet said anything to him about it. Usually Annie kept him advised of such things, but she had been rather distracted the last few days. His mother had said something when they arrived on Tuesday, but then she almost always did; she'd never been fond of his longer hair. He sighed a bit and rose to pad quietly into the bathroom. Even though he'd napped for several hours the afternoon before, he had slept well and felt surprisingly more refreshed than he had the previous two mornings. Even Annie had seemed to sleep soundly, none of the tossing and turning of the previous night. They were traveling today and that went better when neither of them were fatigued.<p>

When he'd finished in the bath Auggie exited to find his wife up and moving about the room. "Good morning, sweetheart. Finishing packing?"

"Mine. Do you want me to finish yours?"

Auggie stopped and pondered the offer for several moments. Even though he was meticulous in keeping his things together in one place, things often went astray anyway. Did he feel like dealing with looking for them? This morning the simple answer was, 'No'. "That would be wonderful," he said and flashed his wife a broad smile. Moments later something soft hit him in the head. "What was that for?" Auggie asked in surprise.

"I would have finished your packing without the cheeky smile. That was overkill," Annie retorted quickly.

"I can't smile at my beautiful wife?" Auggie flashed Annie another quick smile as he removed the article from his head. He examined the item and quickly determined it to be a T-shirt. It was almost too small to be one of his and slightly too big to be one of Annie's. "Yours?" he asked holding it out in the direction it had sailed in from.

"No, not mine. Jessica's. Tony loaned me one of her new ones that she'd just bought the night that the forensics person wanted the one that I was wearing. Did I forget to tell you about that?"

"Must have, but the last few days have been somewhat discombobulated. And I'm sure telling me something like that wasn't on the top of the 'Auggie Must Know This' list."

"Yeah, definitely not a priority. You go and get your coffee. Everything is mostly packed so it will just take me a few minutes to finish getting your stray stuff back into your bag."

The T-shirt was taken from his hand so Auggie turned and left the room. A few minutes later he was sitting at the breakfast table sipping a cup of coffee. In the kitchen his mother was puttering about making breakfast for her family; Auggie heard and smelled the sausage pan frying, eggs being scrambled, and something was in the toaster – wheat toast or English muffins was his guess.

"Auggie, honey," Abigail said maternally, "How long before you think Annie will be down? I don't want to finish up the eggs until everyone is down. All I have to do is call your dad and Alan in from the yard."

"Good morning, Mom, I'm here now," Annie said as she came in from the main hallway.

"Ah, there you are," Auggie announced.

"Yes, here I am," Annie cooed as she settled into the seat to Auggie's left; the one in the back of the alcove.

The sizzle of eggs in a hot skillet reached Auggie's ears. He rose and made his way to the patio doors. "Dad? Alan? Mom's finishing up breakfast," he announced loudly through the opened door. Both Alfred and Alan responded with an answering, "Coming."

Two hours later, just after 9:30, Annie guided Auggie through the main concourse of O'Hare toward their boarding gate. Much to his relief, check in had gone smoothly.

A few minutes later they arrived in the boarding area and he felt Annie guide him to a seat near the gate. He knew they would get an early boarding call.

Once seated, he relaxed and let his mind both look forward into the day and review the week. In an hour or so they would be on their way back to DC. In a few more hours they'd be home in their condo in Reston. Auggie wasn't sure about Annie, but he would be very glad to be home with the last few days behind him. Not that he'd disliked the time with his family – that time was very enjoyable, made much more enjoyable ever since his first visit with Annie – but the extra added excitement associated with the home invasion and the backyard incident he could easily have done without. He was sure Annie could have done without it too. Especially the part where she'd had to kill the three home invaders to protect him and his family. He felt a rush of pride in her capabilities and the homage to them that was present in how the family spoke and acted around her since those two events. He couldn't see their expressions, but he could hear them. What he heard was not fear of her, but deference to her, an element of respect and appreciation that hadn't been there before. He knew Annie was accepted by the family, welcomed and loved before this happened, but he could feel a difference now. She had become 'Family' with a capital 'F'.

He'd felt her moving and heard her handling the suitcases this morning without making sounds like it was a strain, or painful, so he hoped her bruising and other injuries from the two fights had started to heal. With Annie it was hard to tell sometimes. She had exactly zero sense of self-pity.

His musing was interrupted by the first boarding call. He felt Annie rise and followed her actions. She brushed his hand, he took her elbow and she guided him toward the gate. He'd kept his cane unfolded which helped her by alerting those around him that he was blind.

The flight went smoothly and shortly after they landed the car service picked them up at the airport and delivered them to the condo. But even though they weren't scheduled to return to work for another two days, as soon as Annie and Auggie got their bags into the condo they headed to Langley. That was Auggie's idea, but Annie didn't object; Auggie wanted to check on an ongoing mission that he had assigned before they took off on Tuesday morning. Now it was Friday mid-afternoon and he felt compelled to check in on the status of the mission. It should be complete and the officer on her way home, but, as he remembered from Annie's earliest days, sometimes the simplest of missions went all Tango Uniform.

# # #

Once on the campus of the CIA, Annie parked in one of the 'Visitors' spots near the main entrance. With Auggie on her arm, she worked her way through security and up to the DPD. A few moments after she pulled the glass doors open and she and Auggie entered the bullpen, everyone seemed to glanced toward the door and then as one they stood up and applauded. Annie wondered why they were doing that and then became acutely embarrassed. Her only thought was: _How could they possibly know?_ Beside her Auggie stiffened, then relaxed a little, released his hold on her arm and began to move off toward his office.

Before Auggie had taken three steps, Joan popped out of her office. "Annie. Auggie. My office. Now." The applause stopped.

Together Annie and Auggie climbed the stairs to their boss's office. Once inside and the door closed, Joan offered, "Annie, I just want to say how proud I am of you for the way you've handled yourself these last few days. Remarkable. And Auggie, you've trained her well. For that we all thank you. Agent Parker was meticulous in her report. She did a thorough job and left no detail out. Even down to the fact that she had to serve papers on an overly intuitive martial arts instructor and a trauma surgeon who said he'd seen people hit by a truck with less damage. She said the martial arts instructor was quite surprised to get a visit from her, but sincerely hoped to be able to train some of your relatives, Auggie. Agent Parker thought that even without the gag order his code of ethics would not allow him to betray what he thought was a confidence.

"Now, Annie, there are two things that you have to do for me before I can send you out. You have an appointment with the agency psychiatrist first thing Monday morning. And then I want you to see one of the agency physicians to determine your physical fitness for duty. And if either of them determines that you need some sort of therapy, you need to complete that, too. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Annie responded submissively. "But I'm fine, really. Of course I'll keep the appointments, but I think they're a waste of time."

"I'll make sure that she keeps every appointment," Auggie stated firmly. From the look on his face Annie knew that he'd do just that.

The door to Joan's office opened and her husband and Director of Clandestine Services, Arthur Campbell, stepped into the room. "I've seen the reports, Annie. Auggie. Even though it was well outside the scope of your normal duties you did a wonderful job in dealing with those two incidents. But I must agree with Joan on one point. The man in the second incident, why didn't you put him down so that he couldn't get back up again?"

"For a number of reasons, but the main one is that I knew I couldn't justify that course of action to the local law enforcement personnel. Like I told Joan before, as long as I had the advantage of surprise, the second man wasn't a dangerous threat to me. He might have been to my father-in-law, but I knew I could intervene before he became a true threat to Auggie's dad. Yeah, he was big, and I was a bit off the top of my game, but I knew I could get him down and contained. I needed help to contain him, but I had plenty of willing assistance for that."

"And if containment hadn't worked?" Arthur asked pointedly. "His rap sheet was part of Agent Parker's very detailed report. He could have hurt you – and anyone within reach – very badly. We would not have been pleased if that had happened."

"I understand that. I didn't know his pedigree before I engaged him. Even if I had, I'm not sure that I'd have changed my approach. I didn't have an array of options. It was basically kill him in the air on his way to the ground or put him down and contain him. If I'd tried to just damage him I'd have lost control of the situation. It was pretty much all or nothing. I did tell him that if he got up I'd have to kill him – the hold I had him in I could have snapped his neck in a second. He must have believed me because he stopped struggling as much. The police were most appreciative of my efforts. Finally, I didn't think of it at the time, but if I'd killed the second guy, it would have been the second one with my bare hands in two days and that would have gotten a lot more attention than I'd have liked to deal with. We had the guy dying on the operating table already, and the two I shot, but those were a lot easier to explain than breaking this guy's neck would have been."

There was silence and disbelieving looks from both Joan and Arthur. Beside her Annie knew from Auggie's slightly ragged intake of breath that he felt the meaning of the silence and Annie quickly added, "Okay, I just reacted. I had less than a second to react in. It was a purely gut reaction, instinct, but I am convinced it was the right way to handle him and I can't think of anything you can say that would change my mind. If that's bad, so be it."

Arthur looked at her for a few moments and said, "Annie, Agent Parker sent us the video your niece took. I know few people, including myself, who could have done what you did at that moment. I realize you have to trust your instincts in situations like that. But in the field, make sure they can't get back up. You are pretty much on your own out there, not surrounded by brothers-in-law and a husband as backup. If they come at you, you put them down hard."

Annie said, "Message received."

"And understood?"

"And understood."

The Director finished by saying, "Well done to both of you," and then left closing the door behind him.

Joan turned to Auggie and asked, "I saw the video, too, and it was impressive. Just exactly how good is she?"

Auggie said, "There isn't anybody in the department she can't take down including me. I've taught her everything I know, and she's really good at it. Sparring with her is like being in a train wreck."

Annie said, "I'm standing here you know."

Joan turned to Annie and said, "I hadn't realized you were at that level. I should have, but I didn't. I'm not anxious for your expertise in hand-to-hand combat to be general knowledge. If it's a surprise, it's a huge advantage and it helps make up for your small size. Please don't share the details beyond the newspaper stories with people who don't have a need to know. I'm going to make a note in the compartmentalized part of your file and that video won't see the light of day and it won't be in the part that is reviewed as part of mission assignment evaluation by those outside the department. Stuff like this will eventually get out, but the longer we keep it a surprise, the better."

Annie said, "I understand."

Auggie quickly added, "Absolutely. We usually train by ourselves so that shouldn't be a problem."

Joan smiled agreeably and remarked, "Okay, get back out there, say 'hi', and then don't come back till Monday morning as planned."

When they left Joan's office, Auggie lightly took Annie's arm and she guided him down the stairs. She was glad that he'd done that because some of his co-workers were clustered at the bottom of the stairs and she knew it would be difficult for Auggie to navigate. They would have made way for him, but it was slightly easier this way.

Over the next few minutes they discovered that Stu and Barber, had somehow learned the whole story. At least, it seemed, that they had managed to go online and download every newspaper account and then put two-and-two together. Auggie and Annie answered general questions, talked about the good visit with Auggie's family and generally deflected questions about the two fights until Auggie finally said with some exasperation, "Guys, we don't want to talk about the fights. Okay?"

Stu answered, "Okay, okay, we get it," and after a moment added, "But we are really proud of you two, and very glad you are back safe after that deadly home invasion attempt."

Annie turned to Auggie and said, "My desk top is piled with stuff I don't want to see until Monday. How about we get out of here?"

Auggie said, "Give me five minutes in the tech center and I'm good to go."

"Five minutes, starting now."

Auggie sauntered into his office and was back in a few minutes. When he returned to the bullpen, Auggie was able to confirm the mission had ended well; the operative was in the air on the way back home. While Auggie was gone Annie was advised that there was a call for her on her Smithsonian line. Reluctantly Annie picked up the call and discovered it was only FBI SSA Vincent Rossabi. Even though Agent Rossabi had called in on Annie's Smithsonian line, he never once mentioned that institution during the conversation.

Annie ended the call and Auggie asked, "What was that about?"

Annie smiled at the hint of disapproval in her husband's tone of voice and offered, "Rossabi called to welcome his favorite spook back to DC. Apparently Agent Parker gave him a copy of her very detailed report to Joan. He actually sounded like he was impressed. I decided I really need to get a copy of that report and see what's in it. So I asked, and he agreed, to send me one at home. I didn't want it to come here and have somebody other than Joan see it by accident. To his credit, he didn't mention the Smithsonian once."

"You gave him our address?"

"I didn't have to, he already had it. They are the FBI and we don't live in a safe house."

Auggie sighed and replied, "Okay, Annie, let's get out of here. Probably best if you drive."

"Right with ya," Annie replied hip checking him in fun as they turned to head for the exit.

The End

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><p><strong>It's now a completed story. To tell the truth, I'm very glad to have it finished. It turned out to be much longer than I thought when I began it. I'm sort of working on an addition to my 'Happily Ever After' saga, but am not sure when, or even if, they will be posted. <strong>

**Thanks for reading and for your comments. TTFN**


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